The book also tells the story of some of the mosquito species that contribute to human diseases such as malaria, filariasis,dengue, Zika, chikungunya, and Japanese encephalitis. These diseases have played an important role in slowing down the national progress through depleted economy, healthand intelligentsia. The country spends almost 50% of its health budget in fighting against these ailments. Therefore, it emerges that, besides the brutal facts of how the mosquito has insinuated itself into human history, from the malaria that devastated invaders of ancient Rome (Alexander ‘The Great’had reportedly died due to Plasmodium falciparum malaria while returning home after the battle with the Indian king Poru in the malaria infested Punjab region),the story of man's struggle to live with the mosquito, from the early 19th Century malaria-defeat inMian Mir under direct charge of DrSamuel Rickard Christophers, who advocated to Dr Ronalad Ross’s theory of ‘environment sanitation’,to the malaria-deaths of hundreds of rural inhabitants living in The Thar Desert’s irrigated Command Area under the world famous Indira Gandhi Nahar Pariyojana, in the early 1990s,and to the recent panic over the chikungunya virus’ in Kerala, as well as many other States and Union Territories, crippling thousands of people, in 2006, and deaths from dengue all over the country during 2012-14, need to be told to the modern generation of medical entomologists and vector-borne disease specialists to relive the moments of victories and defeats in this vicious age-old battle between man andmosquito. At the end we find that we have only ourselves to be blamed to a great extent for accelerating the spread of mosquitoes and the diseases they transmit; with climate change and increased international travel, mosquito-borne illnesses are flaring up all over the globe. Catastrophic failures of mosquito control have ensured that worldwide even now one person dies of malaria every twelve seconds. This book describes, ina mosquito's-eye view, how mosquito breeds, rests, feeds, flies, mate, and dies, besidesinteraction with her natural enemies. The book also deals with the current constraints and future control prospects of mosquito control. In view of the increasing resistance to insecticides and chemotherapy, the book throws light on the subject of greatest promise to ending mosquitoes' deadly assault on man by render them impotent by genetic manipulation by replacing them through paratransgenesis involving micro-organisms such as bacteria and fungi.

**The instant New York Times bestseller.** *An international bestseller.* Finalist for the Lane Anderson Award Finalist for the RBC Taylor Award “Hugely impressive, a major work.”—NPR A pioneering and groundbreaking work of narrative nonfiction that offers a dramatic new perspective on the history of humankind, showing how through millennia, the mosquito has been the single most powerful force in determining humanity’s fate Why was gin and tonic the cocktail of choice for British colonists in India and Africa? What does Starbucks have to thank for its global domination? What has protected the lives of popes for millennia? Why did Scotland surrender its sovereignty to England? What was George Washington's secret weapon during the American Revolution? The answer to all these questions, and many more, is the mosquito. Across our planet since the dawn of humankind, this nefarious pest, roughly the size and weight of a grape seed, has been at the frontlines of history as the grim reaper, the harvester of human populations, and the ultimate agent of historical change. As the mosquito transformed the landscapes of civilization, humans were unwittingly required to respond to its piercing impact and universal projection of power. The mosquito has determined the fates of empires and nations, razed and crippled economies, and decided the outcome of pivotal wars, killing nearly half of humanity along the way. She (only females bite) has dispatched an estimated 52 billion people from a total of 108 billion throughout our relatively brief existence. As the greatest purveyor of extermination we have ever known, she has played a greater role in shaping our human story than any other living thing with which we share our global village. Imagine for a moment a world without deadly mosquitoes, or any mosquitoes, for that matter? Our history and the world we know, or think we know, would be completely unrecognizable. Driven by surprising insights and fast-paced storytelling, The Mosquito is the extraordinary untold story of the mosquito’s reign through human history and her indelible impact on our modern world order.

Now in paperback--a fascinating work of popular science from a world-renowned expert on mosquitoes and a prize-winning reporter. In this lively and comprehensive portrait of the mosquito, its role in history, and its threat to mankind, Spielman and D'Antonio take a mosquito's-eye view of nature and man. They show us how mosquitoes breed, live, mate, and die, and introduce us to their enemies, both natural and man-made. The authors present tragic and often grotesque examples of how the mosquito has insinuated itself into human history, from the malaria that devastated invaders of ancient Rome to the current widespread West Nile fever panic. Filled with little-known facts and remarkable anecdotes that bring this tiny being into larger focus, Mosquito offers fascinating, alarming, and convincing evidence that the sooner we get to know this pesky insect, the better off we'll be.

An expert on this vexing insect traces the mosquito's origins, its role in history, and its ongoing threat to humankind as the bearer of diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, and encephalitis.