Mosquito + cup + paper + 9 hours

[Function]

Hi everyone

 

I'd like to say "no animals have been harmed" in this 'experiment', which wasn't really an experiment, just a solution to a very annoying problem, but since mosquito's aren't animals, but monsters, I can't promise anything.

 

So I had been harrassed by this most annoying mosquito last night, and after half an hour looking for it, I found it sitting in some shade (yes, I had all my lights turned on; that's when their cloaking device activates --' )

 

And thus I found it, and since I had been successful on capturing insects with cups and paper, I decided to do this with this monster too.

First attempt didn't work, but in the second attempt, it flew right into the cup, I put it against my window, put a paper on it and transported the monster very carefully (so there wouldn't be an opening between the paper and the cup) to my desk.

 

My desk... where it stood for over 9 hours.

 

Don't see me as a sadist. See me as a saviour. For the religious ones here: see me as an eraser, which has the task to erase the Lord's mistakes.

After all, it's the mosquito who's the sadist.

 

I know there're quicker ways to deal with it, but I handle by this most famous Latin saying "Quid pro quo", in casu: those who make you suffer.. well.. let's not complete that sentence.

 

Now here's my point: this beast is still moving. I found it this morning still flying in the cup. WHAT?

9 hours of suffocation aren't enough to get rid of it?

It most certainly wasn't an after-death-spasm. When I shook the cup with the paper, however, I found it sitting on the paper, only moving its head and legs. After half an hour, that's when the spasms came in.

Don't know what it's doing right now... Won't be flying anyway...

 

Now, how can this beast be still alive? Or still show spasms?

The cup has a volume of around 396,14 cc and I'm sure that a mosquito needs air to survive, so perhaps the cup held just about enough air for the mosquito to breath for around 9 hours?

 

Once again, I'm not a sadist just a savior. For the sake of science.

No comments on my potential inhumanity will be treaten (by me). Only comments on the final question.

 

Thanks.

 

F.

 

Edit: another question:

 

Couldn't resist putting it under my microscope.

about at the end of its 'tail' and just before its abdomen, with wings, it has both left and right a very interesting structure. It looks like a very small stone attached with.. well.. it looks like grey muscles, but don't shoot me for being wrong. Does someone know what these structures are? The things attaching these two very small 'stones' have about the same structure as the thing that attaches the wings to the abdomen; but much smaller.

Edited July 11, 2014 by Function

[Nicholas Kang]

I am always eager to have a microscope in my house. Have you checked any leakage in the cup, or look up the respiration rate/breathing rate/metabolism rate of a mosquito? Maybe that can help you?

[Function]

Found what the structures are, they're called "halteres"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halteres

Edited July 11, 2014 by Function

[Nicholas Kang]

What do you mean?

[Function]

(Edited)

[Nicholas Kang]

Sorry, I really don`t get what you mean. I am not good at figuring figurative meanings.

[Function]

I found what the structures I was questioning in my original post are. They're "halteres" and used for flying.. I guess... added a Wiki link fyi

[Nicholas Kang]

I think there is a problem with my computer, I shall apologise because you are posting a link but not the one I saw on my screen just now. Thanks for sharing that link.

I mean it is not a figurative meaning at all.

[Delta1212]

I seriously doubt the cup sitting on the paper forms an air-tight seal.

[Function]

I seriously doubt the cup sitting on the paper forms an air-tight seal.

 

Then the oxygen entering the cup should've been much less than the gas the mosquito exhales per time unit: it suffocated.