蚊子白天都去哪里了？

Mosquitoes are the bane of anyone who steps outside during the hours around dusk and dawn. If not caught in time, the creatures take a drink of blood, and then leave behind an itchy bump, and maybe a disease or two. But very rarely do the insects come out for a meal during daylight hours unless the sky is cloudy. So where do mosquitoes go during the daytime?

在黄昏或者清晨，人们外出时总会受到蚊子的攻击，如果你不能及时发现它，这个小东西就会吸你的血，然后留下一个肿胀的小包，说不定还会留下一两种病毒。但是除非阴天，否则你很少看到这种昆虫在白天出来觅食，那么它们白天都去哪儿了呢?

First things first, the only mosquitoes that consume blood are female. Also, your blood does not provide them with anything they need nutritionally for their own health. Rather, they consume the blood of humans and other animals as a way to get certain nutrients needed for the proper development of their eggs. Yes, your blood is being used to make more mosquitoes.

首先，只有雌蚊子才吸食血液，并且你的血液并不给蚊子本身提供任何营养。它们吸食人类或者其他动物的血液是为了给它们的卵提供营养。是的，你的血液被用来孕育更多的蚊子。

Once the female has safely acquired a “blood meal,” she will rest for a few days while her body develops the eggs from digesting the proteins and iron in the blood, producing amino acids which are used as the building blocks for the synthesis of the egg yolk proteins.

一旦雌性蚊子吸饱了血，她就会休息几天，并且利用这段时间消化吸收血液中的蛋白质和铁产生氨基酸(合成蛋黄蛋白质的基本原料)来孕育自己的卵。

Though people are often bitten, most female mosquitoes actually prefer to feed on livestock and small mammals if given the choice. Male mosquitoes have no need for this sort of thing, so they do not indulge in the highly risky behavior that is sucking the blood of larger animals. If you’re curious as to what mosquitoes actually eat for their own nutritional needs, both male and female mosquitoes primarily feed on nectar from plants, much like honeybees, who incidentally seem to know the world is round and can even do some remarkably complex math in their heads.

虽然人们经常被咬，但是如果能选择的话，雌蚊子更倾向于吸食家畜和小型哺乳动物的血。雄蚊子就不需要这种食物，所以它也就不会因为吸食大型动物的血液而陷入被捕杀的危险中。也许你很好奇蚊子满足本身的营养需要吃什么，实际上无论是雄蚊子还是雌蚊子只要吸食植物的甘露就可以生存下去，这生物很像蜜蜂，那种知道地球是圆的并且可以做一些非常复杂的数学运算的小生物。

The majority of mosquitoes feed around evening and at dawn. The dry heat that often occurs during daylight hours in the summer can quickly kill mosquitoes by causing them to become dehydrated. As such, most mosquitoes rest or sleep in a dark, sheltered place during the daylight hours, preferably an area that is relatively humid, such as tucked inside vegetation like plants and grass. They also can be found sleeping the day away inside man made structures like culverts or barns, or natural shelters such as caves, holes in the ground, and holes in trees.

大部分蚊子在傍晚或黎明觅食，因为夏日白天的干热会让它们脱水而死。有鉴于此，大多数蚊子白天的时候休息或小憩于荫蔽、潮湿的地方，像树木、草丛等植被的空隙里。人们也会在白天看到它们栖息在暗沟、畜棚等人工建筑或土地洞穴、树洞等天然形成的荫蔽所中。