SOME INTERESTING INSECT HABITATS 

 IN THE TROPICS 



DAYTON STONER 



The particular habitats to which reference is made in this paper 

 include a few of the most striking and unusual ones observed in the 

 West Indian Islands Barbados and Antigua. Observations were 

 made and collecting was done by the writer at these places in May, 

 June and July, 1918, at which time he was a member of the Uni- 

 versity of Iowa Barbados — Antigua Expedition. 



The housing conditions on both Barbados and Antigua are in 

 many respects entirely different from those which ordinarily ob- 

 tain with us. Scarcely ever is a glass window to be seen; window 

 and door screens are practically unknown although every bed in the 

 homes of the white people and the better class of negroes is fur- 

 nished with a mosquito net. While flies and mosquitoes are common 

 they are not particularly troublesome. At night the lights in our 

 quarters attracted many kinds of insects, especially moths of which 

 the majority were Sphingids and Noctuids. From the entomological 

 point of view this free ingress of insects proved extremely profitable. 



On both Barbados and Antigua there are, especially in the cities, 

 high walls of brick and masonry about many of the houses and 

 lawns of the well-to-do. The Dockyard at English Harbor is pro- 

 tected on the land side by such a w^all. Many of these walls are 

 capped with a formidable array of heavy, broken glass bottles set in 

 cement ; some of them are so placed as to hold a considerable amount 

 of water. While the sun is hot and the water in the bottles evapor- 

 ates quickly w^hen exposed directly to its rays, evaporation takes 

 place much less rapidly in shaded places. Under such circumstances 

 these containers may hold water for many consecutive days for, 

 during the rainy season, scarcely a day goes by on Barbados that a 

 shower does not occur. These receptacles therefore afford breed- 

 ing places for mosquitoes, the filaria mosquito (Culex fatigans) and 

 the yellow fever mosquito (Stegomyia fasciata) occurring on both 

 Barbados and Antigua. While not a considerable number of these 

 pests may breed in such places they only add to a situation which is 

 none too good. 



