What REALLY happens when a mosquito bites: Scientists capture how the parasite sucks blood in a gruesome video

Footage shows moment a malarial mosquito sucks blood from a mouse

Mosquito take several minutes to find blood and another four to drink it

Malaria-carrying mosquitos spent longer probing around for blood vessels



The moment that a mosquito pierces its victim has been captured in unprecedented detail.

Incredible footage, filmed by French scientists under a microscope, reveals how a malarial mosquito bites and sucks blood from an anaesthetised mouse.



It seems that when a mosquito bites, it doesn’t just draw blood, but in fact probes around under the skin to find a blood vessel, usually for several minutes at a time.



VIDEO: What really happens inside you when a mosquito bites



The video, captured by a team at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, reveals the incredibly flexible mouthparts of a mosquito that can bend at right angles.



‘Some people, especially in Africa and Asia, are bitten several times every day,’ said Valerie Choumet, who led the research, in an interview with National Geographic's Not Exactly Rocket Science blog .

‘We wanted to know if mosquitoes behaved differently when they bit animals that were immunised against their saliva,’

To do this, the team tested mice that had been vaccinated with antibodies that recognise a mosquito’s saliva.



Ms Choumet discovered that white clumps form at the tips of the mosquitos probing mouthparts, indicating that the antibodies had reacted with the insect’s saliva during a bite.



The clumps clogged up small blood vessels. This, however, didn’t stop the mosquitos from drawing blood.



Instead it made them probe around the skin longer to target larger blood vessels.



The blood-sucking mosquitos drink for an average of four minutes. Using advanced microscopes, the team at the Pasteur Institute in Paris could see the red blood cells rushing up their mouthparts

‘I was genuinely amazed to see the footage,’ said James Logan from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, in an interview with National Geographic.



‘I had read that the mouthparts were mobile within the skin, but actually seeing it in real time was superb.



‘What you assume to be a rigid structure, because it has to get into the skin like a needle, is actually flexible and fully controllable. The wonders of the insect body never cease to amaze me.’



The blood-sucking mosquitos drink for an average of four minutes. Using advanced microscopes, Choumet could see the red blood cells rushing up their mouthparts.



National Geographic noted that they suck so hard that the blood vessels start to collapse. Some of these cells rupture, spilling blood into the surrounding spaces.



Scientists noticed that when this happens, mosquitos often rush in for seconds, drinking from the pool of blood created.



Far from been a simple needle-like apparatus that many imagine, a mosquito’s mouthparts are an intricate set of complicated apparatus.

Far from been a simple needle-like apparatus that many imagine, a mosquito¿s mouthparts are an intricate set of complicated apparatus. Under a microscope, the 'snout' looks like a long narrow piece of material with sides that taper to a point at the tip

Under a microscope, the ‘snout’ looks like a long narrow piece of material with sides that taper to a point at the tip.



The flat strip, known as the labrum, is hollow and made up of six different components. It buckles when the mosquito bites, allowing the internal mouthparts to slide into the skin.



Together they are finer than a human hair and the internal components even smaller still.



Four filaments – known as mandibles maxillae—are seen in the video helping to pierce the skin.



‘The maxillae end in toothed blades, which grip flesh as they plunge into the host,’ said Ed Yong writing in National Geographic.



‘The mosquito can then push against these to drive the other mouthparts deeper.’



Malaria-carrying mosquitos spent longer probing around for blood vessels, which suggests that the malaria-causing parasite, Plasmodium, (which has infected the cell on the right) may be controlling the insect's nervous system

Malaria-carrying mosquitos spent longer probing around for blood vessels, which suggests that the malaria-causing parasite, Plasmodium, may be controlling the insect’s nervous system.



Hours after a bite, the French team found Plasmodium in areas where there was mosquito saliva on the rodents’ skin, huddled in areas that were also rife with the mosquito’s saliva.



According to National Geographic, the mosquito starts salivating as soon as it probes the mouse’s skin, releasing substances that prevent blood vessels from constricting, stop blood from clotting, and prevent inflammation.



The footage could aid future research into better understanding how a mosquito bites and preventing the spread of malaria.



‘I have submitted a grant application to investigate aspects of the interactions between mosquitoes, hosts and parasites,’ Logan told National Geographic.

