Interesting to also note that mosquitoes may also play a significant role in pollination.
Decent Discussion Thread started off by a great question:
Quote:Who needs mosquitoes?
Nature of 22 july 2010 features an article called a world without mosquitoes. The author seems to think that mosquitoes are only a nuisance ( causing malaria, yellow fever etc) and that eradication would not have serious consequences for the ecosystem. One argument posed is that most mosquitoe eating birds would switch to other insects. Another line of reasoning goes as follows: thousands of plant species depend on mosquitoes for pollination. But pollination isn't crucial for crops on which humans depend. The only thing we want from mosquitoes is for them to go away. And according to entomologist Joe Conlon they (mosquitoes) don't occupy an unassailable niche in the environment. My question: how do malaria researchers feel about programmes aimed at eradication of mosquitoes??
Full Thread:
http://www.malariaworld.org/forum/who-needs-mosquitoes
Take that into consideration from a large ecological scope; then combine that with the efforts to control them as a pest or plague carrying insect. What of other insecticide targeted insect species and their roles in pollination?
Related to that we have that Killer Bee and Global Bee Death due to the mystifying Colony Collapse Syndrome.
BBC Just put out a documentary series looking into that perceived issue.
Bees, Butterflies and Blooms
Airs Wednesdays at 08:00 pm on BBC2
Premiered February 08, 2012
Genre: Wildlife Documentary
Bees, Butterflies and Blooms is a nature series which follows Sarah Raven who is on a mission to halt the rapid decline in our essential bees, butterflies and pollinating insects.
Source:
http://www.tvrage.com/shows/id-30769
It's widely capped and readily available via BT but maybe worth a look for, if nothing else, the spin that BBC puts on the what is being dubbed as Colony Collapse Syndrome (CCS) or the Global Bee Death.
Maybe someone would care to up it to the tracker?
More on that topic here:
The Global Bee Death + Aggregated Threads and Theories
http://concen.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=32177&pid=233293#pid233293