I have read articles that say mosquitoes detect humans through carbon dioxide exhalation and body odour. When we wave our hand around a mosquito, it usually flies away from ground (even if it initially moves towards it after immediate stimulus). How do indoor mosquitoes 'know' that they are moving 'up', that is, against gravity?
My hypotheses is that instead of detecting whether their direction of motion is against gravity, they somehow measure their distance from the ground but I doubt this because I chased a mosquito up the stairs and its distance from the steps remained almost constant. When I ran down the stairs, the mosquito still tried to swerve around me and move upwards.
If the above hypotheses is wrong, can you link to some experimental evidence as well? (Not necessarily experiments on mosquitoes)
What I could find
Honey bees (Apis mellifica) were unable to fly normally and tumbled in weightlessness. House flies (Muscus domestica ) mostly limited themselves to walking on the walls. When they did fly, they apparently could control motion in all three axes, although flight only lasted for a few seconds. Moths (Anticarsis gammatalis) that developed in space, learned not to fly and preferred to float without wing beat. Whereas adults that were developed on Earth, then sent into space, had problems controlling pitch.
This answer links to sources which directly consider the idea of the influence of Earth's magnetic field (not gravity) but looking at the comments, I am having second thoughts.
