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I have captured and immortalized in this photograph for Las Fotos de los Lectores de La Vanguardia the flight of the mosquito, next to a plant in a field in El Tarròs, a locality incorporated since the mid-19th century in the municipality of Tornabous, in the Urgell region.
Scientists have observed that these insects move their wings in an arc of around 40 degrees at a speed of almost 800 flaps per second, therefore, it is not easy to capture them in mid-flight.
Mosquitoes usually fly at an average speed of 2 km/h and, usually, within a radius of 100 meters from the place where the breeding site is located. Depending on the species, they can fly higher or low to the ground.
When it comes to stinging, they can detect their victims up to 50 meters away. The first contact would be through smell (when they perceive CO2). When they get closer, they are able to see their victim (between 5 and 15 meters) and, when they get even closer, they are guided by the heat it emits.
Despite their small size, mosquitoes are capable of transmitting diseases such as malaria, Zika, yellow fever or dengue fever, which causes more deaths each year.
