CHAPTER IX 



NOTES ON THE COMMONER SPECIES 1 



Group I. Mosquitoes Known to Spread Disease 



Anopheles. — The genus Anopheles, as the carrier 

 of malaria, which kills 5,000,000 human beings a year 

 in India alone, may fitly take precedence of the others. 

 A.maculipcnnis (Fig. 20, page 96) is the worst of the 

 three common species in this country, but the other 

 two, punctipennis and crucians (Fig. 18, page 89) are 

 also malaria carriers. Dr. Dupree showed me the 

 parasites in the salivary glands of all three species. 

 When he had any patient with malaria, he did not 

 take a sample of the blood but let several mosquitoes, 

 often different species, bite the patient, put them by 

 to incubate, and at the proper time looked for the 

 parasites. It used to be a joke among students at the 

 college that, if you became ill, the Doctor would 

 have you eaten up by his " pets." 



Of the three species of Anopheles found at Baton 

 Rouge, A. crucians is the most common during Jan- 

 uary and February in that locality, but the adults of 



1 Observations in this chapter, unless otherwise credited, belong to 

 Dr. Dupree, except those made outside of the laboratory, which, with 

 the exception of dates of capture, are chiefly supplied from my note- 

 book.— E. G. M. 



136 



