CHAPTER XVIII 



What We Should Know About Mosquito Biology ^ 

 W. Dwight Pierce and C. T. Greene 



Entomologists are generally better informed about the life history 

 of mosquitoes than of most of the insects which carry disease. It is 

 therefore more essential at this time to sketch over some of the points 

 to which we as sanitary entomologists must pay attention. Any one 

 studying mosquitoes must, before completing his study, digest the won- 

 derful mass of material in Howard, Dyar, and Knab's Monograph, espe- 

 cially volume 1. 



All mosquitoes pass their early stages in water. They cannot develop 

 in any other medium. 



The adult mosquito is known to every one, but its eggs deposited 

 on the water are the least known. The larvae, commonly known as wiggle- 

 tails, and the peculiar shaped pupae are fairly well known. 



The different species of mosquitoes are more or less selective as to 

 the type of water in which they breed, and careful study of mosquito 

 habitats is essential to all who have to do with mosquito sanitation. 

 Therefore we must, at least in this lecture, consider the habits of all our 

 American disease-carrying mosquitoes. Many of the others may be 

 capable of carrying disease, but no proof has been brought forward 

 against them. 



In the preceding lecture it was shown that the following mosquitoes 

 of the United States are disease carriers : 



Dengue fever is carried by Culex qidnqiiefasciatus (fatigans), and 

 Aedes argent eus (Stegomyia calopus or fasciatus). 



Yellow fever is carried by Aedes argenteus. 



Subtertian or aestivo-autumnal malaria is carried by Anopheles 

 crucians, pseudopunctipennis, pvmctipennis, and quadrimacidatus. 



Quartan malaria is carried by Anopheles quadrimaculatus. 



Tertian malaria is carried by Anopheles crucians, pwnctipennis and 

 quMdrimaculatus. 



Filariasis is carried by Culex quinquefasciatus and Aedes argenteus. 



These six species of mosquitoes are then the ones most to be feared 



'This lecture was presented to the class Septemher 16, 1918. 



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