Part Five: Elephant to Mosquito. Really?
You bet. The natural progression of ear to wing and tusk to antenna is glaringly obvious in the illustration above. That’s mammal to insect explained then.
Ruth Milne, Wellcome Images.
Image Credit: Wellcome Library, London.
Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons by-nc 2.0 UK: England & Wales, see http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/indexplus/page/Prices.html.
Part Five: Ladies that Lunch
This image shows a mosquito (Anopheles stephensi) in flight with its abdomen full of blood. Did you know that only the female insects feed on your blood? Female mosquitoes have specialised mouth parts perfectly adapted to pierce the skin and obtain their blood meal, containing proteins and lipids essential for egg development. In contrast, the males are quite happy sipping on nectar and plant juices.
Through its role in the transmission of malaria and yellow fever, it is claimed that the mosquito has killed more than half the humans that have ever lived and it continues to kill between one and two million people a year, mainly young children. This particular species, Anopheles stephensi, is the insect vector that transmits malaria in India and Pakistan.
Emily Doyle, Wellcome Images
Image Credit Hugh Sturrock, Wellcome Images
Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons by-nc-nd 2.0 UK: England & Wales, see http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/indexplus/page/Prices.html
Part Three: Here Be Dragons!
Kung Hei Fat Choi! Today is Chinese New Year, and the start of the Year of The Dragon. This mythical creature is said to be a deliverer of good fortune, which certainly would be the case if you’d been the original recipient of the items depicted above. These ceremonial mosquito-net hangers from 19th Century Indonesia would have helped protect their owner from the blood-sucking vectors of a number of rather nasty diseases.
They probably wouldn’t, however, be of much use if you found yourself face-to-face with a real dragon. Don’t think that’s a very likely scenario? Try telling that to residents of the island of Komodo, also in Indonesia.
Al McCartney, Wellcome Images.
Image Credit Science Museum, London, Wellcome Images.
Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons by-nc-nd 2.0 UK: England & Wales, see http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/indexplus/page/Prices.html.
