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Mosquitoes in the winter forest

Community and Forum → Insects biology and faunistics → Mosquitoes in the winter forest

vmp, 16.11.2006 9:35

Yesterday I saw flying mosquitoes in the winter forest!
Location: Zelenograd (Moscow region), a forest park in the city center (behind MIET). There is a path through the forest, there are no houses or pipes nearby (at least a few hundred meters away). The nearest river is at least half a kilometer away.
Time: November 15, 2006, around 2 p.m. (this is the time of photographing. The mosquitoes themselves are observed for about a week).
Weather: overcast, snowing (already a week), temperature about 0 degrees.
Observation: during the walk along the path (approximately 10 minutes), mosquitoes (I counted a maximum of 7 pieces) come across, which fly or sit on the snow.
Flying mosquitoes could not be photographed, photos of sitting in the snow can be seen here.

Experts are kindly requested to comment on this phenomenon. As a layman, I believed that insects can only move at a sufficiently high temperature, but not at 0 degrees.

Comments

16.11.2006 12:05, Guest

And if it's mosquitoes, maybe someone from Mecoptera? But it looks like there are two wings.

16.11.2006 12:34, Dmitry Vlasov

These are winter mosquitoes from the order Diptera. They can be found under the bark of dead trees in winter. And during the thaw, they fly quite actively. Perhaps they have been living in the middle zone since the Ice Age.

16.11.2006 14:29, Насекомовед

These are indeed the winter mosquitoes of Trichocera spp. For several days in a row, I have been collecting insects in the snow in Troparevsky Park in Moscow-an exciting smile.gifactivity In addition to these mosquitoes, in the thaw, there are many other insects also in the snow: eardrums, flies, collemboles, aphids, bedbugs, etc.

16.11.2006 15:08, vmp

Thank you all for your answers.
Can you tell me where else on the web you can read more about Trichocera? Preferably in Russian.

16.11.2006 16:09, Насекомовед

On the web, try using search engines. In the Russian literature, the last article on this topic was just on diptera:

Pavlov A.V., 2006. On the species composition and conditions of collecting Diptera from snow in biotopes of Northern Meshchera (Vladimir region) / / Eversmannia. Entomological research in Russia and neighboring regions. Issue No. 6. pp. 56-61.

This is just at the latitude of Moscow. The list is impressive: 51 species from 21 families, but only 3 species are really "winter", the rest are thawed species that do not fall into diapause.

16.11.2006 23:23, Necrocephalus

In Kursk, right in the city limits (private sector; park) during the current thaw swarming some mosquitoes. They are not afraid of rain, which has been falling periodically for several days, because they prefer to swarm under the cover of tree trunks, under the large branches of old apple trees, etc. Who they are - I don't know, because I don't understand diptera, but these animals look quite large - about the size of an ordinary mosquito from the genus Culex.

28.11.2006 11:29, KingSnake

And I 25.11.2006 (Mordovia) also saw these mosquitoes. I really wanted to create a theme....
Moreover, they swarm around the flower garden. I didn't see them on the bare (without shelters) snow. There were still a few small flies there...

28.11.2006 14:54, RippeR

That's what it is.. 25.11.06 Went to the park. There were piles of aphodia flying everywhere. I found 2 types, but I don't know what they are called..

29.11.2006 8:51, KingSnake

That's what it is.. 25.11.06 Went to the park. There were piles of aphodia flying everywhere. I found 2 types, but I don't know what they are called..


Unfortunately, I'm not an expert on insects... And who are aphodias?

29.11.2006 11:36, Bad Den

Small dung beetles (Scarabaeidae, subfamily. Aphodiinae)

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