CHAPTER III. 



THE HABITS OF INDIAN ANOPHELES. 



Distribution and prevalence. 



may perhaps be owing to the fact that " anopheles'' 

 mosquitoes have been more closely studied in India 

 than in any other tropical region, that the number 

 of species recorded from this country is greater, 

 and the known distribution of individual species 

 appears to be wider, than in any other part of the world. Indeed, 

 there is as yet no trustworthy record of the absence of " anopheles" 

 from any part of India, and they have been shown to be present 

 more or less abundantly wherever careful search for them has been 

 made. Even in places at a height above the sea-level of between 

 6,000 and 7,000 feet they frequently occur, and throughout the 

 plains they are exceedingly prevalent. To ascertain, with any 

 approach to accuracy, the exact distribution of each species that 

 occurs in India, would be a task requiring the attention of many 

 trained observers for a considerable period of time, and at present 

 it is impossible to do more than indicate, in a general way, the 

 partial distribution of some of the better known species. This we 

 have attempted to do on the outline map which accompanies this 

 chapter, in the hope that those whose work or pleasure takes them 

 to parts as yet unexplored from this point of view, will fill in 

 the bare spaces at present occupying so large a part of the outline. 

 So far as our knowledge goes, it would seem that many species 

 such as A. rossi, A.fuliginosus, A. barbirostris, A. nigerrimus, and A. 

 culicifacies, occur throughout the length and breadth of the country. 

 Others, such as A. pulcherrimus, and A. maculipalpis, have been 

 found as far north as the Punjab and as far south as Travancore, 

 but have not been recorded from the intervening territories, pro- 

 bably because they have not been searched for in those parts by 

 competent observers. It is also known that some, at least, of the 

 species occur in other countries as well as in India A. maculipalpis, 

 for example, which is a common African species, A. barbirostris, 



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