[daniel-levin]

From an io9 article on the same research:

>> [Hu] and Dickerson constructed a flight arena consisting of a small acrylic cage covered with mesh to contain the mosquitoes but permit entry of water drops. The researchers used a water jet to simulate rain stream velocity while observing six mosquitoes flying into the stream. Amazingly, all the mosquitoes lived.

The researchers used simulated rain drops on six mosquitoes. There are more than six species of mosquitoes. They controlled for wind effects (which are part and parcel of rain). So they excluded horizontally travelling raindrops. My immediate reaction to the conclusion that mosquitoes can fly in rain was "Really? Not always". Here is a methodologically lacking and wholly unscientific anecdote: I have lived in Johannesburg my entire life, where mosquitoes are quite prevalent during the summer months. When it is raining heavily (it is usually quite windy as well), the local species of mosquito that feeds of humans do not present a problem as the number of airborne mosquitoes tends to zero.

[joeyspn]

^This

I live in a mediterranean zone near a huge lake and during summer mosquitos are your every night companions (specially if you're working during late night hours). But when a summer storm brews the mosquitos disappear for two or three days. Why? This has been for me a recurrent question, and the answer has been always obvious: few of them survive being hit by raindrops.

You can make 1000 theories about how our tiny vampire friends deal with raindrops, but it's pretty clear that intensive rain (>3hours) wipe out mosquitos population for several days...

[DEinspanjer]

I can't discuss how the rain interacts with the adults, but I have read scientific research that discusses how stagnant water is required for mosquitos to lay eggs and for the larvae to breathe. If the surface of the water ceases to be stagnant, the eggs cannot be laid and the larvae will suffocate.

I retrieved a link to an article last year that discusses a device that uses solar power to aerate ponds as a mosquito preventative [1].

A reasonable conclusions for the drop in population is therefore that two generations can be severely depopulated by a heavy rainstorm, leaving only the portion living in stagnant water that is sheltered from the rain and run-off to survive and repopulate.

1. http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-05/19/mosquito-devi...

[soneca]

I also agree.

> "And yet (you probably haven’t looked, but trust me), when it’s raining those little pains in the neck are happily darting about in the air, getting banged—and they don’t seem to care."

I have looked and I don't trust you. I live in Brazil where mosquitoes are present all the time, even in the city (obviously, on a smaller scale than places closer to nature). I do notice that whenever is raining there is a sharp drop in mosquitoes number flying inside our homes. They don't completely disappear, but is notorious they are in much smaller numbers. As this is common knowledge over years and years, across basically all the people, I don't consider it anecdote, but empirical observation.

I cannot answer if that is because raindrops kill them, or they just preserve themselves sheltered in their nests, or they breed less in rainy days, or whatever. But the article (not sure about the research) is based on a false premisse.

[daniel-levin]

Well, no, it's not empirical until we design some experiments to test the theory, make predictions, test them, come up with potentially observable data that would falsify our hypotheses, publish our results and let them be peer reviewed, reproduced elsewhere etc... The jump from anecdotes to empiricism is a large one that is not to be undertaken lightly.

[JoeAltmaier]

It seems likely. Mosquitoes have like 3 neurons, and can't be built to deal with macroscopic events. More likely the species uses simple statistics to survive: enough eggs laid in enough places will survive the harshest downpour. The flying guys are only there to lay eggs after all. Seen from that angle, a mosquito is an eggs way of making another egg. Dying in rainstorms is not a problem.

[abandonliberty]

Surviving is not the same thing as actively seeking food.

I'm guessing it still sucks for them.