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> The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator The mosquito is a parasite, not a predator. When the author of the book mislabels the ecological nic

by oska 7y ago

> The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator The mosquito is a parasite, not a predator. When the author of the book mislabels the ecological niche occupied by the mosquito in the title of his book it gives little confidence in his rigour or level of insight.

ceejayoz 7y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasitism#Micropredator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasitism#Micropredator > A micropredator attacks more than one host, reducing each host's fitness at least a small amount, and is only in contact with any one host intermittently. This makes them suitable as vectors as they can pass smaller parasites from one host to another. Most micropredators are hematophagic, feeding on blood. They include annelids such as leeches, crustaceans such as branchiurans and gnathiid isopods, various dipterans such as mosquitoes and tsetse flies, other arthropods such as fleas and ticks, vertebrates such as lampreys, and mammals such as vampire bats. https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/58169/why-is-a-mosquito-feeding-on-human-blood-not-a-parasite https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/58169/why-is-a-m... > A mosquito is a biological parasite, it is not a medical parasite. Plus, it's a figure of speech talking about the fact that they kill a lot of us humans.
- oska 7y ago
  I question the redefinition of predator, an organism that hunts and consumes its prey, in this term micropredator. I wonder how accepted and widespread its use is. And the author doesn't use this much more restricted term. He didn't title his book A Human History of Our Deadliest Micropredator. Because he's going for sensationalism, as is more fully demonstrated in quotes from the book given later in the article: > In total, Winegard estimates that mosquitoes have killed more people than any other single cause—fifty-two billion of us, nearly half of all humans who have ever lived. He calls them “our apex predator,” “the destroyer of worlds,” and “the ultimate agent of historical change.” To your own assertion that mosquitoes kill a lot of humans - they only do so indirectly as a vector for disease. This is a very important distinction - if we are going to eradicate anything it would be better to eradicate the microbial killer parasites they carry, such as Plasmodium falciparum, not the carriers themselves (which are an important food source for many actual predators).
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by oska 7y ago

ceejayoz 7y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasitism#Micropredator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasitism#Micropredator > A micropredator attacks more than one host, reducing each host's fitness at least a small amount, and is only in contact with any one host intermittently. This makes them suitable as vectors as they can pass smaller parasites from one host to another. Most micropredators are hematophagic, feeding on blood. They include annelids such as leeches, crustaceans such as branchiurans and gnathiid isopods, various dipterans such as mosquitoes and tsetse flies, other arthropods such as fleas and ticks, vertebrates such as lampreys, and mammals such as vampire bats. https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/58169/why-is-a-mosquito-feeding-on-human-blood-not-a-parasite https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/58169/why-is-a-m... > A mosquito is a biological parasite, it is not a medical parasite. Plus, it's a figure of speech talking about the fact that they kill a lot of us humans.

oska 7y ago
I question the redefinition of predator, an organism that hunts and consumes its prey, in this term micropredator. I wonder how accepted and widespread its use is. And the author doesn't use this much more restricted term. He didn't title his book A Human History of Our Deadliest Micropredator. Because he's going for sensationalism, as is more fully demonstrated in quotes from the book given later in the article: > In total, Winegard estimates that mosquitoes have killed more people than any other single cause—fifty-two billion of us, nearly half of all humans who have ever lived. He calls them “our apex predator,” “the destroyer of worlds,” and “the ultimate agent of historical change.” To your own assertion that mosquitoes kill a lot of humans - they only do so indirectly as a vector for disease. This is a very important distinction - if we are going to eradicate anything it would be better to eradicate the microbial killer parasites they carry, such as Plasmodium falciparum, not the carriers themselves (which are an important food source for many actual predators).
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]