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How Do Mosquitoes Adapt to the Ecosystem?

There are more than 3,000 species of mosquito worldwide. Certain kinds of mosquitoes, like the anopheles mosquito, can transmit diseases that are harmful to humans, such as malaria and yellow fever. These diseases cause millions of deaths every year worldwide, affecting mostly small children and the elderly. Excluding Antarctica and the interior of Greenland, mosquitoes inhabit every land mass on Earth, and they have relied on their formidable powers of adaptation to allow them to become so widespread.

Mosquitoes
- Mosquitoes are tiny pests that have harassed humankind for millennia. At less than an inch long and weighing only 0.000088 oz., the mosquito may only be a mild irritant individually, but can pose a serious threat when swarming with other mosquitoes. Contrary to popular opinion, mosquitoes do not suck blood for food; only females suck blood, and it nourishes their eggs before they lay them. Males and non-pregnant females consume nectar and other plant sugars for food.
Predation
- Predation -- the extent to which a species is preyed upon by another species -- is significant factor in determining whether mosquitoes can establish themselves in a new ecosystem. Though they may face threats from other natural predators, such as the dragonfly, invading mosquitoes can face opposition from mosquito species that are already there. For example, a resident species of mosquito can thwart the invasion of another mosquito species when resident larvae feed on the eggs of the invaders, drastically limiting their population.
Parasites
- The presence of parasites in the new ecosystem can determine the success or failure of a mosquito species' ability to adapt to a new ecosystem. Parasites can have a detrimental effect on the larvae of mosquitoes. If an invading species of mosquito carries a parasite unfamiliar to the resident species, the resident population may drop as the invading species' population grows, leading the invading species to establish itself in the ecosystem. Also, an invading species may encounter unfamiliar parasites in a new ecosystem, and its ability to adapt to the ecosystem will be directly linked to its capacity to defend itself against these parasites.
Climate
- An ecosystem's climate can interfere with the mosquito's ability to adapt. Mosquitoes thrive in moist, tropical environments. In colder temperatures, their survival is dependent upon whether their eggs can undergo "diapause," a state of stasis during which no growth occurs. Though most invading species of mosquito fail to exhibit diapause initially, this usually changes with subsequent generations, and this stasis allows the mosquito eggs to mature into larvae, eventually becoming full-grown adult mosquitoes.

Insects & Science