68 PREVENTIVE AND REMEDIAL WORK AGAINST MOSQUITOES. 



the spring rains to rivulets flowing to the Delaware River, or whether 

 they escaped in other ways, could not be told. In his report for 1907, 

 however, Doctor Smith states that the Gambusia was found in large 

 numbers in Teals Branch of Pond Creek, a small tributary of Delaware 

 Bay at Higsbie's Beach, by Mr. Henry W. Fowler, of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, and Messrs. H. Walker Hand and 

 O. H. Brown. These gentlemen found it also very abundant in New 

 England Creek, another tributary of Delaware Bay just north. 

 Doctor Smith states that Mr. Seal was inclined to claim that this find- 

 ing was the result of- his work in 1908, but that Mr. Fowler doubted 

 this conclusion since the points where found were 90 miles distant 

 from points of introduction. 



FISH INTRODUCED INTO HAWAII TO ABATE MOSQUITOES. 



In the early part of 1903 Mr. D. L. Van Dine, then entomologist of 

 the Hawaii Agricultural Experiment station of the U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture, brought up the question of introducing top-minnows 

 into Hawaii, since his investigations of the mosquito problem in the 

 islands indicated that no effective natural enemies existed there. Dr. 

 David Starr Jordan, to whom the problem was referred, informed Mr. 

 Van Dine that while these fish had never been transported for such a 

 great distance, they were extremely hardy, and that the experiment 

 would be well worth while. The cost of the experiment, however, 

 was prohibitive at the time, and it was not until 1904, when a Citi- 

 zens' Mosquito Campaign Committee was organized in Honolulu, 

 that the requisite funds were raised. Mr. Alvin Seale, an assistant 

 of the Bureau of Fisheries, United States Department of Commerce 

 and Labor, was chosen to do the work, and with an advance of $500 

 started in July, 1905, from Stanford University to the southern 

 United States. He proceeded to Seabrook, near Galveston, Tex., 

 where he found top-minnows in large numbers. They were swarming 

 in all the stagnant waters at sea level, as well as in various ditches, 

 ponds, and standing pools. Mr. Seale found that mosquitoes were 

 very plentiful about Seabrook, but after careful study he convinced him- 

 self that they did not breed at all extensively in the bodies of water 

 containing the fish, but in temporary and artificial breeding places, such 

 as closed pools, tubs, and tin cans, not accessible to fish. Doctor 

 Jordan had advised the collection of fish of the following genera: 

 Mollinesia, Adinia, Gambusia, and Fundulus, all members of the 

 family Poeciliidse, the top-minnows. Mr. Seale made careful exami- 

 nations of the stomach conditions of the minnows of the genera recom- 

 mended by Doctor Jordan., These stomach contents were found to 

 consist largely of larvae of various insects, including those of mos- 

 quitoes, of the egg-masses of mosquitoes, of minute Crustacea, and of 

 some vegetation. The fish of the genus Gambusia were found to be 



