Poor rat

The rat is often blamed for causing the Black Death. In reality, it was only one the carriers of the flea, which was the primary vector for bubonic plague. Poor rat! Actually, something rather similar goes for the mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, which is largely in charge of spreading malaria. Strictly speaking, it is not the mosquito itself which is responsible but a parasite. This parasite, while it causes diseases in humans, does not harm the mosquito. The mosquito ingests the malaria parasite when it feeds on an infected human. The parasite will complete its first life cycle within the mosquito and it then finds a new host when the mosquito feeds on an uninfected human. (Chaline, Eric: Fifty Animals that Changed the Course of History. Buffalo, New York: Firefly Books, 2011: 186 + 10)