Darn those mosquitoes. First we learn this week that they have adapted to feed on reptile blood on the Galápagos Islands, putting several rare species there at risk. Now we hear that they are also threatening Hawaii’s endangered birds, and may soon be pushing several species closer to extinction. (Not to mention the usual things [...]

Mosquitoes don’t cause malaria—the disease comes courtesy of the Plasmodium falciparum parasite. Yet mosquitoes do a fine job of spreading Plasmodium to about half a billion people every year. The parasite depends on mosquitoes for more than just transport, however. Plasmodium goes through much of its complex life cycle inside the mosquito, passing through the [...]

In the long fight against malaria, progress finally seems to be coming, if incrementally. The number of people who died from malaria in 2010 fell 5 percent from the previous year and has dropped 26 percent from 2000 levels, according to a new World Health Organization (WHO) report. The decline might seem modest given the [...]

By any other name, the Anopheles gambiae mosquito would still bear—with its tiny buzzing wing beats—the deadly threat of malaria, which can be passed to humans in a single blood-sucking bite. But what if this species were to split in twain? Two new studies, published online October 21 in Science, have found evidence that A. [...]

A lot of communication in the animal world occurs via volatile, information-carrying "scent" chemicals, many of which remain to be chemically identified. Generally speaking, pheromones are a type of infochemical used within a species to influence social behaviors and attract mates whereas kairomones send signals between different species and are often used to detect predators [...]

Malaria kills hundreds of thousands of people every year, and the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum is behind a majority of those deaths. Although newer drug combinations (of artemisinins) proved effective after resistance to widely used treatments appeared, hints of resistance to this newer therapy are also beginning to emerge, creating a darkening cloud over a [...]

I remember last summer as the summer of the mosquito. I wasn’t prepared. Those buzzing, itching, carbon dioxide-seeking missiles chased my family out of the backyard. The long anticipated lazy days laying in the backyard turned into short backdoor jaunts of necessity. No one wanted to take the chance. Mosquitoes were everywhere. So were warnings [...]