Sunday, June 24, 2012

Extinction

My argument yesterday sounded convincing, right? Even mosquitoes have a role in global ecology.

But, no. Not necessarily.

It is now claimed by many experts in ecology and biology that mosquitoes represent an odd group of species that their extinction has surprisingly little deleterious effect to the rest of the world. Notably, most mosquito-eating animals would switch to other insects that, as soon as the good old blood-seeking bug is done away with, would emerge in large numbers to take up the place. With so many choices on the dinner menu, most insect-eaters do not need to tighten their belts in a world without mosquito. Similar replacing species would come up for the plants that the annoying insect helps in the pollination. There are actually good reasons to suspect that the contribution of mosquitoes and their larva to other animals' diet is over-estimated.

A succinct summary of the arguments could be found in A World Without Mosquitoes by Janet Fang, in the 20 July 2010 issue of Nature.

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