• Question: what is the point of mosquitoes????

    Asked by newlanskypink97 to Amy, Drew, Julia, Kimberley, Sara on 14 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Drew Rae

      Drew Rae answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      The point is that sharp thing (the probiscus) that they sting you with!

      The way darwinian evolution works, living things don’t need to have a reason outside of themselves. They don’t exist to help other species, or even to help the world as a whole work. They just need to be good at reproducing.

      Mosquitoes exist because lots of animals use blood as a way of transporting important things around their bodies, and the size and shape of a mosquito is good at collecting and using this blood.

      What would a world be like without mosquitoes? Actually, mosquitoes are mainly nectar-eaters. There are quite a few plants that rely on mosquitoes to spread pollen in the same way that other plants rely on bees. The viruses that cause yellow fever and malaria also rely on mosquitos.

    • Photo: Amy MacQueen

      Amy MacQueen answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      They are pretty good at what they do – sucking our blood…it depends what you class as a point really – they are annoying to us but some animals eat them so they need them!! 🙂

    • Photo: Kimberley Bryon

      Kimberley Bryon answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      Although mosquitoes are really annoying as they bite you and can cause disease, they are a tasty food for some birds, frogs and toads and are therefore an important part of the food chain.

    • Photo: Julia Griffen

      Julia Griffen answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      Mosquito…. nasty critters and itchy bites!

      As well as what all the other scientists have said they also…
      They do spread diseaeses and viruses which help to control populations of animals..
      Although bad for us humans as mosquitoes spread malaria! and other diseases which can infect us!

      Mosquitos are very succesful survival species though, and have been around since the time of dinosaurs. Born Survivors!

      I have just read though, that if mosquitos didn’t exist, scientists predict that many other animals would fill in for them and there loss wouldn’t affect the nature…

      SO good question!

    • Photo: Sara Imari Walker

      Sara Imari Walker answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Hahaha, I like Drew’s first line joke!! So funny!

      The interesting thing about life on Earth is that it has co-evolved (by the process of Darwinian evolution described by Drew) to fit different roles. So actually it is not just that mosquitoes appeared for the selfish purpose of sucking your blood, but also because they benefit their entire ecosystem (an ecosystem is term used to encompass all interacting organisms, e.g. on the savannah an ecosystem includes the grass, the gazelles that eat the grass, the lions that eat the gazelles). Like Julia says, there is an important role of mosquitos which might be filled by other creatures if mosquitos weren’t there (can you imagine a blood sucking mammal??? – well I guess vampire bats are!). One argument of why mosquitoes provide a benefit to ecosystems is that they spread disease which keeps population sizes down. Think for example about the savannah example – their is no predator that eats lions. But if something like a mosquitoe existed it might help to keep lion populations down, which leads to sustainable gazelle populations. The entire system is interconnected. We may not like mosquitoes – I know I don’t, I get nasty welts! – but they do serve a purpose!

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