Oldest male mosquitoes predate the earliest known blood-sucking females
WASHINGTON, Dec 5 (Reuters) – Scientists have discovered the oldest known fossils of mosquitoes, finding two male mosquitoes encased in slices of amber dating back 130 million years in central Lebanon.
These ancient mosquitoes had elongated, piercing-sucking mouthparts, similar to those found in females today, despite the absence of females in the fossils. This suggests that blood-sucking behavior in mosquitoes dates back to the age of dinosaurs.
Paleontologist Dany Azar of the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology and Lebanese University, lead author of the study, said, “Clearly they were hematophagous – meaning blood-eaters. So this discovery is a major one in the evolutionary history of mosquitoes.”
The discovery was made near the town of Hammana, Lebanon, and has been documented in a study published in the journal Current Biology.
Researchers believe that mosquitoes evolved from insects that originally did not consume blood. The discovery of these ancient male mosquitoes challenges the belief that only females require blood for egg development and sheds light on the evolutionary history of mosquitoes.
Furthermore, the fact that these ancient mosquitoes are bloodsucking males suggests that originally the first mosquitoes were all hematophagous – no matter whether they were males or females – with the behavior being lost in males only later.
Azar and his team suspect that plant evolution may have played a critical role in the divergence of feeding behaviors between male and female mosquitoes.
“Plant evolution may have played a role in the feeding divergence between male and female mosquitoes. At the time when these two mosquitoes became stuck in tree sap that eventually became amber, flowering plants were beginning to flourish for the first time on the Cretaceous landscape,” said Azar.
While male mosquitoes are not blood-feeders in modern times, the discovery of ancient hematophagous males has challenged scientists’ understanding of the feeding behavior of mosquitoes and their evolutionary history.
The researchers acknowledge that mosquitoes likely originated millions of years earlier and that the number of mosquito species globally, totaling over 3,500, transmit various diseases including malaria, Zika fever, and dengue.
The discovery of these ancient male mosquitoes provides valuable insights into the origins and behavior of mosquitoes and may have implications for understanding and preventing the spread of diseases transmitted by mosquitoes.
Reporting by Will Dunham, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien
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