this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2024
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Showerthoughts

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The unpleasantness of mosquito bites is not something useful for mosquitoes, but it is useful for the ones who suffer it (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 months ago by NoSpotOfGround@lemmy.world to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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The way our bodies react to mosquito saliva motivates us to avoid being bitten. Which must have had evolutionary benefits, keeping us away from diseases.

I.e. all those people that didn't mind them and never got itchy from mosquito bites appear to have died out. And mosquitoes really wish that wasn't true.

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[–] kireotick@lemmy.world 39 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Well the point is that people who had a bad reaction to mosquito bites tend to avoid getting them. Therefore they tend to live longer because they also happen to avoid the diseases, live longer and have more babies. They don't need to understand anything.

The point is that the itching evolved because it could be beneficial for us. The bites are not unpleasant in themselves as you say. They are unpleasant because we evolved to feel them unpleasant. It is the same as sex being pleasant. It is that way because it is beneficial.

[–] fine_sandy_bottom@lemmy.federate.cc 3 points 2 months ago

I'm not disagreeing with you, but I think it's a histamine response which is just directed at parasites in general.

[–] kamenoko@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Biting insects kill more people than any other animal group by miles, the reaction response is more or less the same in every mammal. Evolution doesn't evolve to anything, that's selective pressure.

This behavior predates humans as we know ourselves today.

[–] JustZ@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Biting insects kill more people than any other animal group by miles

I take issue with this obvious selection bias. Of course this is true when you're pre-selecting for only the insects that bite people. If you were to preselect only those sharks that have bitten people, so-called biting sharks, I think the shark-bitten people have a higher average early mortality than the insect-bitten people. /s