Aedile, Latin Aedilis, plural Aediles, (from Latin aedes, "temple"), magistrate of ancient Rome who originally had charge of the temple and cult of Ceres.
According to the latest data, the "friendly" insects have reduced the wild Aedes population by eighty-two per cent.
A more important case is Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that transmits yellow fever and dengue, which, to the horror and confusion of medical entomologists, was renamed Stegomyia aegypti on what many consider flimsy evidence.What name a genuinely new species is given, though, is entirely up to the discoverer.
It can be tweaked to operate only when a particular species is active (Anopheles, which spreads malaria, is nocturnal; Aedes, which is responsible for yellow fever and dengue, prefers daylight).
Dengue is already endemic along the Texas-Mexico border, and this strain of chikungunya is carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which also deals in dengue and prefers tropical regions.Dr Hospedales is trying to raise awareness without creating panic.
As commercial shipping expanded worldwide in the 18th and 19th centuries, Aedes was a stowaway, possibly from Africa.
Intriguingly, two more genera of mosquitoes, Aedes and Culex, respectively responsible for Dengue fever and the West Nile virus, are also known to make use of seminal secretions that have onward effects on the female.
Past experience suggests most scientists will either reject or ignore any change that is not widely supported.When the mosquito which causes yellow and dengue fever, Aedes aegypti, was revised to Stegomyia aegypti, many important journals rejected the new name.
But rising prosperity and globalisation have given a boost to Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that carries dengue (and yellow fever).
But Aedes and the virus it carries have adapted well to city life.
At least 37 people have died, including 11 in Paraguay and 17 in Brazil.The dengue viruses are transmitted to humans through the bite of a female Aedes mosquito, which acquires the viruses while feeding, normally on the blood of an infected person.
