Science desk
< January 31	<< Jan \| February \| Mar >>	February 2 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Science Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

February 1

Animals, insects, trees in snow

All those places where temperature is extremely negative, how do animals survive? I am not talking about Polar beer, penguin. I once saw a picture in national geographic where a Canadian eskimo was in igloo in snow and he was covered in mosquitoes. Why those mosquitoes did not freeze to death?

And how do trees survive brutal cold. Trees can die due to poisoning, forest fire then how do trees survive such cold, where humans have to put on so much thermals, gloves, jackets, coats. Stargty6 (talk) 17:32, 1 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Stargty6! Trees survive brutal cold because of their bark. According to the National Forest Foundation, it states Bark provides insulation and protection against freezing and cracking during the winter. It isn't just the bark, however. The trees drop their leaves to reduce water loss.

Now for the mosquitoes. For the female mosquitoes, they survive by using a form of hibernation called diapause. According to the Passport Health, it states The key to survival for female mosquitoes is a form of hibernation called “diapause.” As cold temperatures settle in, females fatten up approximately 10 times their usual fat accumulation and enter diapause. Not only that, but mosquitoes also enter indoors to survive from the cold (but most times IMO they're going to be really annoying in your houses as they ~~sting~~ bite and create itch spots.) Tails Wx 17:47, 1 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Tails Wx They bite, not sting. Bazza (talk) 20:03, 1 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Oops, I did not think of "bite". Thank you, Bazza 7. Tails Wx 20:43, 1 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, to "bite" us, mosquitos first saw a hole into one's skin, through which they then insert a bundle of needles, including a hollow one to suck up blood while another hollow needle drips in mosquito saliva to make sure it will itch like hell.^[1] Calling this "biting" instead of "stinging" is a somewhat arbitrary choice. --Lambiam 10:33, 2 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

To be strictly accurate, the mosquito saliva isn't "to make sure it will itch like hell" but "saliva contains substances that keep our blood flowing". Without the saliva the blood would quickly congeal and Mrs Mosquito wouldn't get the blood she needs for her eggs. Itching is a by-product felt after she's flown safely away from slaps by aggrieved victims. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 10:45, 2 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Lambiam The link I gave, and others leading from it, are fairly clear it's a bite. Is there an interesting WP:ENGVAR difference in the definition of "bite" and "sting"? Bazza (talk) 13:12, 2 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

IMHO, a bite involves the use of mouthparts. --Jayron 32 14:13, 2 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The idiomatic term in English is "bite". But the basic sense of "biting" is to cut into something by clamping one's teeth, which is very different from what mosquitos do. So how did it become "bite" in English? In French one says, more to the point, piqure de moustique, literally "mosquito sting", and in Italian likewise puntura di zanzara. --Lambiam 15:04, 2 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

La piqûre actually is better translated as "poke" or "prick"; it is also used when describing injections, which actually better describes BOTH what a bee and a mosquito do. The French is better translated as "mosquito prick" or "mosquito injection" rather than "sting". The sensation of "sting" is cuisant en français. --Jayron 32 15:28, 2 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Albeit mosquitoes don't bite with teeth, they do it with their mouthparts and they do it to eat. I think that's reasonably distinguished from a "sting", which is an injection of venom with the purpose of harming the recipient rather than gaining calories from them, at least immediately. (A sting might be used to incapacitate the victim, after which they would be a source of calories, but that would be a separate step.) --Trovatore (talk) 02:50, 3 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I've always wondered if there really is a biome band of mildest mosquito season. From what they say it sounds like midsummer mosquitoes eat you alive in the boreal forest of North America (and tundra?). Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 20:26, 1 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Of course, not all trees drop their leaves; see How Do Conifers Survive the Cold?. Alansplodge (talk) 23:25, 1 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

And in Australia, the Snowgum, or Eucalyptus pauciflora. HiLo48 (talk) 00:28, 2 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

One of the few eucalypts that will actually grow in England. Alansplodge (talk) 22:21, 2 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

In North America, several species of hardwood trees also keep their leaves; some are only located in places where winter weather is rare or very mild, like the Quercus geminata a live oak, though there are some hardwood trees that you can find in colder climates that have real, cold, freezing winters, that also keep their leaves, such as several common species of Magnolia, as well as American Holly, which is widespread in the eastern third of the U.S. Usually, these kinds of trees have very thick, leathery leaves which perhaps protects them in freezing weather. A magnolia leaf and a holly leaf are both very unlike a maple or an elm leaf. --Jayron 32 17:36, 3 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Among significant populated places, the only truly mosquito-free place is Iceland. Per Mosquito#Distribution, "Mosquitoes are cosmopolitan (world-wide): they are in every land region except Antarctica[67] and a few islands with polar or subpolar climates. Iceland is such an island, being essentially free of mosquitoes.[87]" Also noteworthy is that not all mosquitoes feed on humans. Per Mosquito#Host animals, "Many, if not all, blood-sucking species of mosquitoes are fairly selective feeders that specialise in particular host species", which is to say you may live in an area which has plenty of mosquitoes, but which don't feed on human blood. There are also mosquitoes which don't feed on blood at all, see Toxorhynchites for one such genus, although there are many others. --Jayron 32 14:18, 2 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Mosquitoes bite you even in the city sometimes but the taiga and tundra biting season seem worse I wonder why. Tropical and subtropical biting seasons are also probably worse and sometimes transit malaria, Zika, dengue, yellow fever, West Nile etc. West Nile virus did start homegrown American transmission with New York City mosquitos but it probably started there cause it has lots of intercontinental planes and ships and was first found in 1930s Uganda as far as anyone knows. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 18:00, 2 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

That largely has to do with the fact that pathogens are mosquito specific, a specific species of mosquito is only able to survive in a specific environment, and only specific mosquito species feed on specific humans. In order to get, say, Yellow fever, you need to be bitten by an Aedes aegypti (or a few other related species) of mosquito which is infected. And those don't live in taiga or tundra. Dozens of species do live in the arctic, but they don't carry yellow fever. --Jayron 32 11:55, 3 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The above answers have forgotten to mention insect eggs. Many insects don't survive but their eggs do. Then the next warm season comes. Invasive Spices (talk) 17:30, 7 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]