Aedes
Encyclopedia
Aedes is a genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of mosquito
Mosquito
Mosquitoes are members of a family of nematocerid flies: the Culicidae . The word Mosquito is from the Spanish and Portuguese for little fly...

 originally found in tropical and subtropical zones, but now found on all continents excluding Antarctica. Some species have been spread by human activity. Aedes albopictus, a most invasive species was recently spread to the New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...

, including the U.S., by the used tire trade. First described and named by Meigen in 1818, the name comes from the Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 aēdēs, meaning "unpleasant" or "odious". Some species of this genus transmit serious diseases, including dengue fever
Dengue fever
Dengue fever , also known as breakbone fever, is an infectious tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash that is similar to measles...

 and yellow fever
Yellow fever
Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....

. In Polynesia
Polynesia
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...

, the species Aedes polynesiensis
Aedes polynesiensis
Aedes polynesiensis is only found in the South Pacific on the islands of Austral Islands, Cook Islands, Ellice Islands, Fiji Islands, Hoorn Islands, Marquesas Islands, Pitcairn Island, Samoa Islands, Society Islands, Tokelau Islands, Tuamotu Archipelago. It is the vector of both the dengue virus...

is responsible for the transmission of human lymphatic filariasis
Filariasis
Filariasis is a parasitic disease and is considered an infectious tropical disease, that is caused by thread-like nematodes belonging to the superfamily Filarioidea, also known as "filariae"....

.

Aedes can be detected and monitored by ovitrap
Ovitrap
An ovitrap is a device which consists of a black cylinder with a piece of cardboard. This device is used to control the aedes mosquito population. It can monitor, control and detect aedes mosquito populations thus acting as an early warning signal to preempt any impending dengue outbreaks.The...

s.

The yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti
Aedes aegypti
The yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti is a mosquito that can spread the dengue fever, Chikungunya and yellow fever viruses, and other diseases. The mosquito can be recognized by white markings on legs and a marking in the form of a lyre on the thorax...

) genome is being sequenced by the Broad Institute
Broad Institute
The Broad Institute is a genomic medicine research center located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Although it is independently governed and supported as a 501 nonprofit research organization, the institute is formally affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard...

 and The Institute for Genomic Research
The Institute for Genomic Research
The Institute for Genomic Research was a non-profit genomics research institute founded in 1992 by Craig Venter in Rockville, Maryland, United States. It is now a part of the J. Craig Venter Institute.-History:...

 (TIGR). The initial assembly was released in August 2005; a draft sequence of the genome and preliminary analysis was published in June 2007. Annotation of the sequence is being undertaken by VectorBase
VectorBase
is one of the five Bioinformatics Resource Centers funded by the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIAID a component of the National Institutes of Health , which is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services...

 and TIGR.

Characteristics

Aedes species are typical small mosquito
Mosquito
Mosquitoes are members of a family of nematocerid flies: the Culicidae . The word Mosquito is from the Spanish and Portuguese for little fly...

es. They usually have black and white stripe markings on their body and legs.

Systematics and phylogeny

The genus was named by Johann Wilhelm Meigen
Johann Wilhelm Meigen
Johann Wilhelm Meigen was a German entomologist famous for his pioneering work on Diptera.-Early years:Meigen was born in Solingen, the fifth of eight children of Johann Clemens Meigen and Sibylla Margaretha Bick. His parents, though not poor, were not wealthy either. The ran a small shop in...

 in 1818. As historically defined, the genus contains over 700 species (see the list of Aedes species). The genus has been divided into several subgenera (Aedes, Diceromyia, Finlaya, Stegomyia etc.).

External links

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