206 



Arthropods as Hosts of Pathogenic Protozoa 



Aedes calopus, more commonly known as Stegomyia fasciata or 

 Stegomyia calopus (fig. 134) is a moderate sized, rather strikingly 

 marked mosquito. The general color is dark-brown or 'reddish- 

 brown, but the thorax has a conspicuous broad, silvery-white curved 

 line on each side, with two parallel median silvery lines. Between 



the latter there is a 

 slender, broken line. 

 The whole gives a lyre- 

 shaped pattern to the 

 thorax. The abdomen 

 is dark with silvery- 

 white basal bands and 

 silvery white spots on 

 each side of the ab- 

 dominal segments. 

 Legs black with rings 

 of pure white at the 

 base of the segments. 

 Size of the female 

 3.3 to 5 mm.; male 3 

 to 4.5 mm. 



It is pre-eminently 

 a domesticated species, 



/ I \ ^w being found almost 



S t \ ^ exclusively about the 



habitation of man. 

 "Its long association 

 with man is shown by 

 many of its habits . It 

 approaches stealthily 

 from behind. It re- 

 treats upon the slight- 

 est alarm. The ankles and, when one is sitting at a table or desk, 

 the underside of the hands and wrists are favorable points of attack. 

 It attacks silently, whereas other mosquitoes have a piping or hum- 

 ming note. The warning sound has doubtless been suppressed in 

 the evolutionary process of its adaptation to man. It is extremely 

 wary. It hides whenever it can, concealing itself in garments, 

 working into the pockets, and under the lapels of coats, and crawl- 

 ing up under the clothes to bite the legs. In houses, it will hide 



134. The yellow fever mosquito (Aedes calopus), (x?). 

 After Howard. 



