A mosquito's secret weapon: a light touch and strong wings

(University of California - Berkeley) How do mosquitoes land and take off without our noticing? Using high-speed video cameras, a team from UC Berkeley and Wageningen University have found part of the answer: mosquitoes' long legs allow them to slowly and gently push off, but their wings provide the majority of the lift, even when fully laden with a blood meal. For comparison, mosquitoes push off with forces much less than those of an escaping fruit fly.
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news