NSF 今日图说 | 给蚊子喝饮料

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蚊子可能是世界上最不好对付的害虫之一了，名声很臭。但其实它们很小，也很脆弱。一组研究人员在用氮气麻醉蚊子之后，用指甲油将一只蚊子粘到了一根昆虫针的针头上，然后将它的鼻子浸在了一种以糖为基础的进食溶液中。蚊子的鼻子长长的，像稻草一样，这个器官是用来喝水的。饥饿的蚊子立马就会开始吮吸甜甜的饮品。X 射线同步加速器记录下了蚊子不透明的外骨骼后面发生的一切。努力没有白费。研究人员不仅发现了蚊子一种新的喝饮料的方式，还回答了昆虫形态学中的一个基本问题：为什么一些喝饮料的昆虫头上有两个泵，而其他昆虫只有一个？关于昆虫摄食机制和形态的新发现，可能会对科学家未来研究蚊媒疾病的传播有着重大的影响。

Bursting with blood -- mosquito insights could yield biomedical applications

Mosquitoes may have a reputation for beingone of the world's most intractable pests, but they're actually quite tiny andfragile. After anesthetizing mosquitoes with nitrogen gas, a team of researchers used nail polish to glue a single mosquito to the head of an insectpin, and then submerged its proboscis -- that long, straw-like appendage mosquitoes use for drinking -- into a sugar-based feeding solution. As the hungry insect sucked up the nectar, live synchrotron X-ray videos captured footage of everything that happened behind its opaque exoskeleton. These efforts not only yielded the discovery of a new mode of drinking in mosquitoes,but they could also answer a fundamental question of insect morphology: Why do some insects that drink liquid have two pumps in their heads, while others haveonly one? The new findings on the insect's feeding mechanisms and modalities could have larger implications for how scientists address mosquito-borne disease transmission in future research.

Image credit: Jake Socha

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