KEEPING AND FEEDING MOSQUITOES 269 



cardboard ; when all the imagines have hatched the upper jar should be 

 removed and a piece of netting tied over its mouth. 



Darling recommends keeping mosquitoes in lantern chimneys, in the 

 centre of which he fixes a circular piece of cardboard, securing the two 

 ends with pieces of net ; about twenty mosquitoes are placed in each 

 chimney, which should be placed in a jar with some moist filter paper 

 and kept in a cupboard. 



Adie describes a simple method of keeping anophelines alive without 

 feeding them on blood. In the jar he places a dried date wrapped in a 

 small piece of muslin, a piece of wet sponge, and a twig of some green 

 weed, the end of which is inserted into a hole in the sponge. If placed 

 in a jar or lamp chimney under these conditions female anophelines may 

 be kept alive for three weeks without blood. 



Caught mosquitoes can be induced to bite if certain precautions are 

 'attended to. The worker will, however, soon discover that many if not 

 all of the bred females of certain species will refuse to suck blood ; no 

 adequate explanation can be given for this, but it seems probable that 

 copulation is in some way connected with the first feed of blood. 

 Although female mosquitoes will readily suck the juice from a banana 

 or a date, it has been shown that this food has no material effect on 

 the development of the ova. It is clear, however, that a preliminary 

 feed from a banana or a date will stimulate mosquitoes to bite later on. 



Feeding experiments should preferably be carried out in the evening, 

 and at least twenty-four hours after the mosquitoes have hatched. 

 The jar or the chimney should be inverted over the patient's forearm, and 

 care should be taken to cover it with a dark cloth in order to 

 exclude all light. A few taps on the bottom of the jar will cause the 

 mosquitoes to alter their position, and if they are going to bite they 

 will settle on the net and commence to feed at once ; in the case 

 of the lamp chimney the same effect is produced by blowing through 

 one end. After the mosquitoes have fed the jar is inverted over 

 its lid, which should contain some moist filter paper. The chimneys 

 should be placed upright in a jar, at the bottom of which there is 

 some moist filter paper. 



If the mosquitoes refuse to bite an attempt should be made on 

 the following night, and in the interval they should be given a date 

 or raisin to feed on. If they still refuse to bite they should be 

 liberated into a large cage covered a good net ; the bare arm should 

 be passed inside the cage in the evening first moistening it with a 

 little water. Sometimes even this method fails, and if this happens 



