Mosquito by Richard Jones (review)
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Mosquito by Richard Jones
Richard Jones, a fellow of the Royal Entomological Society of London and the Linnean Society of London and a former president of the British Entomological and Natural History Society, has authored a short, charming book titled Mosquito. It appears in the Animal series, published by Reaktion Books, with companion volumes such as Ape, Moose, and Wolf.
The Animal series is designed to reach a popular audience, and toward this end the volumes are lavishly illustrated. Mosquito, printed on heavy glossy stock paper, is adorned with scores of images, of which approximately half are high-quality color reproductions. If not for its very modest dimensions (7.5 inches × 5.25 inches), it might well be considered a general-interest “coffee-table book.”
The primary goal of the book is to entertain and thereby to educate. The author has adopted a breezy, conversational style that indulges digressions into popular culture, and he is not committed to a chronologically ordered presentation of information. With cheery British wit, he imparts interesting facts about the mosquito, the development of mosquito studies within the field of entomology, mosquito-borne disease, and representations of the mosquito in Western popular culture.
Mosquito is thus not a book of academic scholarship, and few readers would situate it within the field of the history of medicine. That said, there are fascinating facts and tidbits of information to be gleaned—indeed savored—from the text. Richard Jones lucidly explains the biological classification of mosquitoes, the mechanism by which female mosquitoes suck blood, and the mysteries of mosquito flight. He makes the point that Anopheles gambiae, the most efficient mosquito vector of malaria, is the most dangerous animal in the world. Focusing principally on malaria, he devotes three chapters to mosquito-borne disease, in which are reproduced eloquent public health propaganda posters and postcards. He discusses the evolutionarily rapid emergence from Culex pipiens of Culex molestus in the underground tunnels of London during the Second World War.
The text is steeped throughout in popular culture references, and this reader was impressed to learn of the myriad of mosquito themes in popular films, Gary Larson cartoons, and rock band lyrics, including those of Pearl Jam and Queens of the Stone Age. He devotes an entire chapter to the “mosquito brand,” by which he means the attachment of the term “mosquito” to warplanes, ships, stamps, and toys.
Readers of different ages and educational backgrounds will find pleasure in perusing this short volume. Some young adult readers may find themselves drawn thereby to entomological studies. For readers within the academy, the book with [End Page 474] its rich illustrations may stimulate interest in the popular culture of public health messaging and encourage further reading in the history of vector-borne disease.
