Mosquitoes serve themselves and exploit diverse ecological niches. Mosquitoes serve as nutriment to many kinds of generalist predators, but no predator is so specific that it depends exclusively upon mosquitoes. Hence, mosquitoes may form some portion of the diets of predaceous beetles, dragonflies, ants, spiders, birds, bats and yet other creatures. Note that it is likely that far more mosquitoes feed upon birds and bats than are eaten by those predators. When they die, the carcasses of mosquitoes may nourish scavengers and saprophytes. Mosquitoes are critical to the perpetuation of diverse microbes, some of which only infect mosquitoes, and some (such as the agents of malaria, filariasis, and arboviruses as dengue) that infect and burden human beings and other vertebrates.