I believe mosquitos do inject something to suppress your reaction to them, which is why you don’t notice bug bites until long after the bug is gone. There’s no reproductive advantage to the mosquito to extending that indefinitely.
I had something like locality in mind when writing this shortform, the context being: [I’m in my room → I notice itch → I realize there’s a mosquito somewhere in my room → I deliberately pursue and kill the mosquito that I wouldn’t have known existed without the itch]
But, again, this probably wouldn’t amount to much selection pressure, partially due to the fact that the vast majority of mosquito population exists in places where such locality doesn’t hold i.e. in an open environment.
I believe mosquitos do inject something to suppress your reaction to them, which is why you don’t notice bug bites until long after the bug is gone. There’s no reproductive advantage to the mosquito to extending that indefinitely.
Oh wow, that would make a ton of sense. Thanks Elizabeth!
I had something like locality in mind when writing this shortform, the context being: [I’m in my room → I notice itch → I realize there’s a mosquito somewhere in my room → I deliberately pursue and kill the mosquito that I wouldn’t have known existed without the itch]
But, again, this probably wouldn’t amount to much selection pressure, partially due to the fact that the vast majority of mosquito population exists in places where such locality doesn’t hold i.e. in an open environment.
In NZ we have biting bugs called sandflies which don’t do this—you can often tell the moment they get you.