Medical and Veterinary Entomology

Delusory parasitosis

A form of psychosis whose victims acquire a strong delusional belief they are infected with parasites.

Poison

A substance that adversely affects an organism through chemical action by impairing or destroying tissue or by the general disruption of normal bodily functions.

Toxin

A biologically produced substance that is poisonous to another organism on contact, either externally or internally.

Venom

A toxin produced in certain glands of one animal that can be transmitted to another animal by mechanical means, such as biting or stinging.

Myiasis

Infection of living animal tissue with fly larvae.

Accidental myaisis

Free-living fly eggs or larvae are consumed and survive in the host.

Facultative myiasis

Fly larvae which can either be free-living or parasitic, depending on available resources.

Obligatory myiasis

Fly larvae are always parasitic and require a host.

Parasitism

A relationship between two different organisms in which one organism benefits at the expense of the other organism.

Pathogen

Disease-causing microorganism

Mechanical transmission

Transmission of a pathogen by an insect that occurs when the insect is in a contaminated environment, and then contaminates our food that we consume.

Biological transmission

Transmission of a pathogen by an insect that occurs when the pathogen requires a host to complete one or more of its life-stages, and depends on the insect to enter the host.

Vector

An organism that transmits pathogen from a reservoir to a host, or from an infected host to a noninfected host.

Reservoir

A host which maintains a pathogen/disease in nature.

Host

The organism required for sexual reproduction of the pathogen to occur.

Plague

A widespread disease that caused multiple epidemics throughout history and occurred when infected rat fleas transmitted the bacteria Yersinia pestis to humans, causing a deadly infection.

Bubonic plague

Caused when bacteria Yersinia pestis lodges in lymph glands, leading to blood poisoning. Symptoms include fever, headache, malaise, swelling of lymph nodes, pus, bleeding, nausea, vomiting, pain, and aches. Death often occurs in 5 days.

Pneumonic plague

Caused when bacteria Yersinia pestis enters the bloodstream and lungs. Airborne version that can be passed by coughing. Symptoms include fever, headache, cough, chest pain, and weakness of muscles. Death often occurs in 3 days.

Septicemic plague

Caused when bacteria Yersinia pestis enters the blood stream, causing septicemia in the circulatory system. Appendages turned black as circulation ceased and tissues died. Death within hours, called the black death.

Malaria

Caused by a protozoan injected through bites by infected mosquitoes. Protozoan inhabit and destroy red blood cells. Symptoms include headache, fever, fatigue, pain, high fever, enlargement of spleen, nausea, vomiting.

Yellow Fever

Caused by bite of infected mosquito that transmits the virus. Causes hemorrhaging. Symptoms include severe headache, nausea, pain, liver necrosis and jaundice, internal bleeding and black vomit.

Filariasis

Caused by nematodes transmitted by an infected mosquito. The nematodes lodge and reproduce in lymph nodes, enlarging the surrounding tissue and causing skin to become leathery.

Pediculosis

Itching and swelling from lice bites.

Epidemic typhus

Disease caused by the bacterium Rickettsia prowazekii that is passed to a host from an infected body louse. Symptoms include high fever, excruciating headache, mental disorientation, dark red spots on skin.