84 The Control of Mosquitoes 



both species were to some extent afraid of the 

 light of a lantern at night in that particular lo- 

 cation. If the lantern were behind the neck the 

 face was bitten, and on bringing the light around 

 toward the face, they immediately ceased oper- 

 ations on it and collected on the back of the neck, 

 and continued biting vigorously. The same was 

 true of the biting of the hands. The hand farthest 

 from the light was the one bitten. They invari- 

 ably left the lighted side of the hand, if it were 

 slowly moved to about eighteen inches from the 

 lantern. The same rule held true with regard 

 to their settling on the observers' clothing, which 

 continually occurred. This apparent fear of arti- 

 ficial lights had been noted in previous years at 

 Corozal, three miles from the Pacific Ocean, but in 

 that locality Anopheles tarsimaculata were then 

 absent and Anopheles albimanus was the prevail- 

 ing species. 



When bright acetylene lights with reflectors 

 (automobile lamps) were used at Corozal, an 

 observer standing in the direct rays and holding 

 his bare arms in them ten feet away from the lamp 

 was never bitten. Yet when an obstruction was 

 placed in the column of light and one inch of finger 

 put behind the obstruction, in its shadow, several 

 Anopheles albimanus settled on that finger in less 



