Aedes aegypti, the yellow fever mosquito, is a dangerous vector of the dengue fever, Chikungunya and yellow fever viruses, and other diseases. This small mosquito has white and black stripes on its body and legs and a marking in the form of a lyre on the thorax. The mosquito originated in Africa[1] but is now found in tropical and subtropical regions throughout the world. Only the female bites for blood which she needs to mature her eggs. The CDC traveler's page on preventing dengue fever suggests using mosquito repellents that contain DEET (N, N-diethylmetatoluamide, between 20% to 30% concentration, but not more), and also suggests care be taken to wear thick, long-sleeved clothing, mosquito nettings over the bed, and spraying with the insecticide permethrin.
The genome of Aedes aegypti was the second mosquito genus to be sequenced in full, in 2007. The genus Aedes is undergoing reorganization according to recent morphological analyses by Reinert et al. This would change the name of Aedes aegypti to Stegomyia aegypti. Because this species is of great medical and public health importance, this proposed name change has been ignored by most scientists; at least one scientific journal, the Journal of Medical Entomology, has officially encouraged authors dealing with mosquitoes in the subfamily Aedinae to continue to use the traditional names, unless they have particular reasons for doing so.
(Editors of The Journal of Medical Entomology; Polaszek 2006; Wikipedia 2011; Wikipedia 2011b; WRBU)
- Editors of The Journal of Medical Entomology. Policy on Names of Aedine Mosquito Genera and Subgenera. Entomological Society of America. Retrieved November 16, 2011 from http://www.entsoc.org/Pubs/Periodicals/JME/mosquito_name_policy
- Nene, V.; Wortman, J. R.; Lawson, D.; et al., B; Kodira, C; Tu, ZJ; Loftus, B; Xi, Z et al. June 2007. Genome sequence of Aedes aegypti, a major arbovirus vector. Science 316 (5832): 1718–1723. doi:10.1126/science.1138878.
- Polaszek A., 2006. Two words colliding: resistance to changes in the scientific names of animals–Aedes vs Stegomyia. Trends in Parasitology 22 (1): 8–9. doi:10.1016/j.pt.2005.11.003. PMID 16300998.
- Reinert J.F., R.E. Harback, and I.J. Kitching, 2004. Phylogeny and classification of Aedini (Diptera: Culicidae), based on morphological characters of all life stages. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 142 (3): 289–368. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2004.00144.x.
- Reinert, J.F., Harbach, R.E. & Kitching, I.J. 2009. Phylogeny and classification of Aedini (Diptera: Culicidae). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 157, 700−794.
- Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 19 October 2011. “Aedes". Retrieved November 15, 2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aedes&oldid=456322788
- Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 9 November 2011. “Aedes aegypti". Retrieved November 15, 2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aedes_aegypti&oldid=459865222
- WRBU (Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit). Aedes. Retrieved November 16, 2011 from http://wrbu.si.edu/generapages/aedes.htm
