Francisco Campos-Rivadeneira and Roberto Levi- Castillo: Their lives and contributions to the study of mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in Ecuador

• Published in: Biomédica
• Main Authors: Giovani Marcelo Ramón, Rodolfo Pérez, Pablo Jarrín
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Spanish
• Published: Instituto Nacional de Salud 2019
• Subjects: Culicidae/classification; disease vectors; entomology/history; Ecuador; Medicine; R; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.7705/biomedica.v39i3.4415; https://doaj.org/article/12981ada35ed444bb30fcd768279df19

The study of mosquitoes is important in the prevention of vector-borne diseases. In Ecuador, the study of local mosquito biodiversity was pioneered by two entomologists whose contributions span through the first half of the 20th century, Francisco Campos-Rivadeneira and Roberto Levi-Castillo. Both of them contributed to general aspects of Entomology and to particular insights in mosquito taxonomy. Their publications and discoveries were recognized by the international scientific community but went unnoticed in South America during their time. Today, very few citizens remember the names and contributions of these two scientists. Here, we provide an overview of their lives, a summary of their contributions, and we conclude with a broader outlook on the practice of science in Latin America during their time.