Mosquitoes spend the first part of their lives in pools of stagnant water, feeding on algae, bacteria, and other microbes. In the water, they are preyed on by dragonflies, fish, and small crustaceans. When mosquitoes hatch, both males and females feed on flower nectar—thus acting as pollinators.

However, once fertilized, the females feed on blood to nourish the development of their eggs; as a result, mosquitoes are possibly Earth’s most annoying animals—at least to humans. Not only do they cause itchy welts when they bite and whine in your ear when you are trying to sleep, but they spread some of the most troublesome diseases—malaria, yellow fever, and dengue fever, among them. Malaria alone is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths every year. That mosquitoes are a plague on humankind might lead you to say:

Earth would definitely be better if mosquitoes were extinct.

Questions

1. What are the ecological relationships between

(a) Mosquitoes and microbes in the water;

(b) Mosquitoes and dragonflies;

(c) Mosquitoes and the plants they visit; and

(d) Mosquitoes and humans?
2. Sketch a food web containing mosquitoes. What organisms would likely be affected by the loss of mosquitoes, and in what way?
3. Could any of the changes listed affect organisms that are not in the web you drew? Explain.
4. What is a keystone species?
5. Are mosquitoes a keystone species? Explain.
6. Reflect on your answers to questions 1–5 above and explain why the statement bolded above sounds right, but isn’t.