FISHES IN THEIR RELATION TO THE MOSQUITO PROBLEM. 



By WILLIAM P. SEAL. 



Some phases of the mosquito problem are extremely simple and easy of 

 solution, but there are others that have not as yet attracted much attention 

 and that, in the opinion of the writer, will not be so easily solved. The class 

 of mosquitoes represented by the rain-barrel wigglers constitutes, with the 

 salt-marsh species, the most of the mosquitoes, and the most pestiferous of 

 them as mere annoyances. The problem of dealing with these is one of simple 

 engineering, filling and draining, with the oil barrel as an auxiliary. 



But the Anopheles mosquito is altogether in another class and will require 

 a very different and more complex sort of treatment. It is, in fact, to a great 

 extent a separate problem. 



Though fewer in numbers than the other mosquitoes, the Anopheles is 

 more to be dreaded because of its wary and insidious manner of attack and 

 of its infectious character. It breeds in both quiet and running water, but 

 always where there is ample protection for its eggs and larvae, among and over 

 masses of aquatic or semiaquatic plants, confervae, duckweed, lily leaves, drift, 

 floating dead leaves, and debris. And, lying and moving horizontally on the 

 water, so completely does it assimilate with its surroundings in both color and 

 shape that it is only discernible to the sharpest vision, generally only by its 

 movements, which are sidewise or backward on the surface unless seriously 

 disturbed, when it wriggles down into the water. 



After a series of observations and experiments covering several years the 

 writer is not convinced that Anopheles can be exterminated by any method so far 

 advanced, or without very great difficulty and the use of every available agency. 

 The character and magnitude of the problem are not yet understood. Several 

 years ago, in an examination of Central Park, New York, Anopheles larvae were 

 found to be abundant, though up to that time the locality was supposed to be 

 free from them. They were found in unsuspected places, and not where the 

 other mosquito larvae were found, and they were found abundantly in other 

 unsuspected places in New York as well. Moreover, although thousands of 



833 



