A mosquito day-28th Dec. 2007

This X’mas vacation 20 knowledge seekers from 6 states in India have been camping near Nilambur in Kerala. Named entomocourse, this is the first venture of TCN Trust for animal taxonomy based at University of Calicut, Kerala. The Trust has been formed by the students of the Eminent entomologist Prof. T.C. Narendran (Recipient of Janaki Ammal Award and Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore). The objective of the course is to introduce the amazing diversity of insects and their identification. Today was my day. I was asked to talk on Mosquitoes. It was a wonderful experience as I was bombarded by endless number questions. Then only I realized the curiosity of people about the life and actions of mosquito. One girl asked me, ‘How can you distinguish a man mosquito from a woman mosquito?’ My answer: ‘It’s very simple. Men have moustaches, women do not have. Moreover males are vegetarian, where as females are Vampires’. I was not joking. It is a fact. Male mosquitoes have bushy antenna and they subsist on plant sap and nectar. Another question: ‘See, mosquitoes can transmit viruses of dengue and chikungunya; why not HIV’. My answer “ Dengue can be transmitted by only Aedes type of mosquitoes. It all depends on the virus’s ability to get adapted to the mosquito environment. So far there is no evidence to suggest that”. So it went on and on like that. It was a very successful discussion and everybody was happy. After the class, when I interacted with the participants I was surprised to see people from various backgrounds, who had nothing to do with biology. One of them was a photographer from Mumbai! I was really happy to notice that there were youngsters out there who were not compu-maniacs (I mean softies and hardies). A rare species of people indeed!

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