The Secret Lives of Mosquitoes, the World s Most Hated Insects | Smithsonian Voices | National Museum of Natural History | Smithsonian Magazine
Thanks to its plant-based diet, this hefty insect fittingly known as the elephant mosquito has generally flown below our radar. Instead, we have long concerned ourselves with the three percent of mosquito species that infect us with zoonotic diseases like malaria, dengue fever and Zika virus. Make no mistake: our irritation with these insects is warranted. For humans, mosquitoes are the deadliest animals on Earth. But the long-legged, sugar-sipping elephant mosquito is one of many species that might be doing more good for humanity than bad.
Aside from the 100 or so species that commonly spread disease to humans, there are thousands more with fascinating behaviors and gorgeous bodies that we barely understand, yet we still call for their indiscriminate eradication. Must we also evict the magnificently iridescent mosquitoes whose larvae prey on dangerous species, or the ones that pollinate flowers at night, or the single species known to risk its life to protect its eggs from harm?
We have been grossly underestimating the diversity of mosquitoes, said Yvonne-Marie Linton, curator of the Smithsonian’s National Mosquito Collection and research director at the Department of Defense s Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit (WBRU). The number of new species that we find everywhere we go is phenomenal.
Kill them all and let God sort them out.