Human beings may be among the deadliest animals on the planet – but there is another species which is even more bloodthirsty than us.
The humble mosquito tops a list of killer beasts – and is apparently responsible for the deaths of a whopping 725,000 humans every year.
That’s compared to the ten a year attributed to sharks, 100 by lions and 10,000 by freshwater SNAILS.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates posted an astonishing graphic showing just how skewed the balance is in favour of the “flying masters of mayhem” on his blog Gates Notes.
Declaring it Mosquito Week, Gates writes:
The billionaire philanthropist also uses the post to publicise his recent trip to Indonesia to learn about new ways of combatting dengue fever and about advances in fighting malaria.
Gates’s campaign is modelled after the hugely popular Shark Week and follows the World Health Organisation’s World Malaria Day.
Malaria kills an estimated 627,000 people every year, mainly children under the age of five in sub-Saharan Africa.
The species, which spreads tropical diseases including dengue fever and the chikungunya virus usually occurs in tropical regions of Africa, Asia and South America.
Scientists led by Dr Cyril Caminade, from the University of Liverpool, used climate models to predict how changing conditions might affect Asian tiger mosquito distribution.
They wrote in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface: "Mosquito climate suitability has significantly increased over the southern UK, northern France, the Benelux, parts of Germany, Italy, Sicily and the Balkan countries."
The research shows that parts of the UK could become hot-spots of Asian tiger mosquito activity between 2030 and 2050.
The mosquito has been introduced into Europe from Asia via goods shipments, mainly used tyres and bamboo.