Mosquito Diversity and Mosquito-Borne Diseases

Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) are known for their irritating biting habits and disease transmitting vectors. An approximately 3600 species of mosquitoes are recorded worldwide under the 2 major subfamilies Anophelinae and Culicini. The subfamily Culicini comprises 11 tribes with varied number of genera under them, while the subfamily Anophelinae includes 3 genera and 500 species roughly. In almost all regions of the world, mosquitoes are regarded as the vectors of diseases with the ability to exploit varieties of habitat as breeding places. Among the various habitats, phytotelmata of diverse types are exploited by the mosquitoes for breeding. The species diversity of the mosquitoes varies with the zoogeographical realm with the Neotropical realm carrying more species than that of the Oriental realm. The Nearctic realm appears to have the least number of species. A correspondence of the mosquito diversity and the physical space is observed, facilitating the estimate of the species richness of mosquitoes with precision. In contrast to the species richness of the mosquitoes (~3600), on a world wide scale, selected species (10%) bear the significance as disease vectors. Most of the vector mosquitoes are generalists in nature with the ability to host multiple pathogens and parasites and vice versa. Selected species like Aedes aegypti, Ae. albopictus, and Culex quinquefasciatus are more prominent as disease- transmitting agents in different parts of the world, in addition to the malaria vectors, Anopheles spp.