mosquitos

[njohnson]

While on the subject of critters, I wanted to bring up the foul mosquito as a contrast to the humble earthworm. You might ask why I am suddenly exploring the world of tiny invertebrates. An excellent question! To which I would respond: I have no idea

Comments

[dmorr]

The thing that puzzles me, aside from the outpouring of non sequitor that is this blog, is that mosquitos are the loudest bug when they're just flying around. You'd think, given the dislike everyone else has for them, that they would have evolved quieter flight in order to avoid the aforementioned magazine slaying.

[njohnson]

Well, that's my question. Are they actually the loudest bug, or have human ears simply evolved so that they are extremely well-attuned to the particular frequency of a mosquito's hum, causing it to sound much louder to us than it actually is? Certainly our ears are much better at hearing some pitches than others (ie: we can't hear subsonic or supersonic frequencies), and are better at hearing certain types of sounds (such as vocal tones vs. white noise). We also tend to lose the ability to sense things that aren't very important in the grand scheme of things, while preserving sensory abilities that are critical to our survival

[mschlock]

Isn't "outpouring of nonsequitur" basically the definition of "blog"? Purple monkey dishwasher?