COLOR PREFERENCES 217 
“Our experiments were made in a large gauze tent which had been erected 
within a disused photographic establishment, the one end of the tent ending 
against large windows into which the sunlight poured on bright days. Large 
stone basins were placed on the floor for the Anopheles to breed in, the stock 
being renewed from time to time. 
“Tt was noticed at the beginning that when one entered the tent in dark grey. 
clothes, that the imagos frequently flew up and settled on the dark cloth, but that 
they never did this when the person entering the tent was clothed in white 
flannels. To test the influence of colour, a number of pasteboard boxes were 
taken which measured 20 by 16 cm. and had a depth of 10 cm. The boxes were 
lined with cloth, having a slightly roughened surface, to which the insects could 
comfortably cling. All of the fabrics had a dull—not shiny—surface, and each 
box was lined with a cloth of different colour. The boxes were placed in rows 
upon the floor and upon each other in tiers, the order being changed each day 
after the observations had been made. The interior of the boxes was moderately 
illuminated by light reflected from the surface of the white tent. On 17 days 
during a month beginning with the middle of June, we counted the number of 
flies which had accumulated in the boxes. Counts were actually made on 17 
sunny and cloudy days, and with the following result : 
Number of A. maculipennis 
Colour of Box counted in each box 
during 17 days. 
Navy DIME: acidic d besa eis HOS Caan eee eee eae 
DADK.. TOO secctecn sg stcgeeack ated Ges has due ook Oineate ve Rion erra aca Sree 
Brown: (Reddish): a6¢psiiascevaaisview mie eee eae enoisaaime cas 
SSCBRIOU: fois 5 cterilg/a-is suet oy araentisa oie abisteedes Gar weainee aie ce bnernasg SeeheNE ace 
Black esac ee.¥s s8oG 04 SE es SEG Bes Re Ke Se ED ewer re a 
IGE BTOV 2604 caw 28 dpe 4 o 4 ee Oso Re Cea wR Cow ORW SE 
Dark green (olive) 
WI OTE sis onestewedetyes 
Leaf green .......... 
BUG. wes saws ys enews se oe 
Se) ee ee er eee eee eee eee 
PAlO: BTCOM: 5.655 5.59. h6d apse Geog Brae POS aio ETS EES MR a 8 
Light blue (forget-me-not) .......... eee ee cece eee eee 3 
OCHIE: -eeiaswrs Secdton Sala Sha eg ae ea Woe eate te WOMaa a ase 2 
WIG ics ewe sad ae a Waena ds Gavin ema OME eee Red Ae 2 
OLEAN LC. Seok diets Sa MS eat as SOS AAT es OW SHLS 4 GOe ples 1 
VOMOW. ob as 4 6 Siesd dk canta ganda ea ones eee eee ee es 0 
“ We see from the above table that dark blue was most attractive, the other 
colours being less and less attractive in the order of numbers given. A marked 
fall in the number of insects resting in the boxes begins with the ‘ pearl grey’ 
box. Pale green, light blue, ochre, orange, and yellow, especially the last two 
colours seemed to repel the insects. The karki-coloured uniform at present in 
vogue should offer advantages besides invisibility to human foes! These obser- 
vations on colour were described by one of us in a short note which appeared in 
the British Medical Journal (14 Sept., 1901). 
“Mr. J. Cropper, of Mount Ballan, Chepstow, who read the above note wrote 
to us (17 Sept., 1901) : ‘ Seeing your article on Colour Selection by Anopheles 
reminds me that I found the dark navy-blue lining of my tent this summer (in 
Palestine) extremely attractive to mosquitoes, almost entirely Anopheles—and 
when the sun got hot I always noticed an increase in their numbers, presumably 
as they came from the herbage and trees near by. No one ever slept in the tent, 
and I never found Anopheles bite in the day time.’ 
