ABSTRACT
World-wide, several species of mosquito in the family Culicidae outdo even bees as killers of human beings through their spread of contagious diseases caused by nematodes, protozoans, bacteria, and viruses. Outside of the tropics and a few lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, people are seldom concerned with diseases caused by insects with aquatic larvae. Most of the serious virus-spread diseases are transmitted by mosquitoes in the genus Aedes in the family Culicidae. Most viruses can be transmitted by more than one species of vector, and some vectors can spread more than one disease. Yellow fever, a disease caused by a virus transmitted by mosquitoes in the genus Aedes, caused the abandonment of the first project to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. The dengue viruses contain RNA and are in the genus Flavivirus, which is in the family Flaviviridae. Malaria is common name of a group of diseases caused by closely related protozoan species in the genus Plasmodium.
