350 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. XI, July, 1957 
this race (A. samoanus . . . M. L.) breeding so 
exclusively in the axils of taro, for coconut 
shells, and many other small dark hollows, 
are abundant in Samoa and Tonga.” These 
authors also found it difficult to account for 
the limited distribution of A. samoanus in 
Polynesia. Their puzzlement disappears in the 
light of the information now available. In the 
first place, Buxton and Hopkins based their 
belief that A . kochi breeds in husks on a record 
from New Britain by Hill (1925, also in Ed- 
wards, 1926). More recent investigators have 
altogether failed to corroborate this, and 
Laird (1946) found kochi larvae only in Colo - 
casta axils and in one Pandanus axil in New 
Britain. The larval habitats listed for this spe- 
cies by Marks (1947) and Knight and Marks 
(1952) were Colocasia , Alocasia , Pandanus , 
Crinum , bananas and pineapples; and various 
plants belonging to the families Araceae and 
Pandanaceae comprise the usual habitats of 
members of the kochi group in general. The 
second point considered anomalous by Bux- 
ton and Hopkins, the limited distribution of 
A. samoanus in Polynesia, ceases to be sur- 
prising when we can view this insect not as 
an ecologically and geographically isolated 
subspecies of A. kochi but as a sibling species, 
evolved in the South Pacific, which may have 
yet to attain its maximum limits of dispersal. 
CONCLUSIONS 
A. freycinetiae is regarded as close to the 
parent stock whence sprang A. fjiensis and 
A. samoanus , the last-named insect being much 
its closest relative. It remains to be estab- 
lished whether A. samoanus itself exists in 
Fiji. Despite the fact that great numbers of 
collections from various aroids, made over a 
considerable period of time, have not revealed 
its presence there, it is quite feasible that a 
race utilizing some other plant — perhaps a 
member of the Pandanaceae— as a larval hab- 
itat is yet to be discovered. This is all the 
more likely in view of the occasional occur- 
rence of A. samoanus larvae in Pandanus axils 
in Samoa and Tonga and of Lever’s discovery 
of a single distinctive larva associated with 
A. fijiensis in Pandanus. Marks (1947) gave a 
brief description of this larva, which, differing 
as it does from A. fijiensis in having a non- 
pilose siphon, and from A. freycinetiae in hav- 
ing distal comb teeth similar to those of the 
former species, is very likely referable to A. 
samoanus , as she suggested. 
A careful investigation of the axils of Frey- 
cinetia spp. and other forest Pandanaceae in 
Samoa and elsewhere in the South Pacific, 
notably in the New Hebrides and New Cale- 
donia whence no representatives of the kochi 
group are known, might well shed still further 
light upon our knowledge of these mosquitoes . 
Observations on the biting habits of A. 
freycinetiae have yet to be made. Information 
concerning the behaviour of this insect is 
particularly desirable in view of the announce- 
ment by Symes (1955) that 68 (21.6 per cent) 
of 314 A. fijiensis females caught in houses 
and forest in Fiji (localities not stated) ex- 
hibited filarial infection (chiefly Wuchereria 
hancrofti). Symes’ mosquito identifications 
having been made in the belief that but one 
species of the kochi group is to be found in 
Fiji, the occurrence there of a second species 
and perhaps a third one as well obviously has 
important bearing on his conclusions. 
REFERENCES 
Amos, D. W. 1947. Mosquito Control Training 
Manual , pp. 1-44. Govt. Press. Suva. 
Bohart, R. M., and R. L. Ingram. 1946. 
Mosquitoes of Okinawa and Islands in the 
Central Pacific . U. S. Bur. Med. and Surg., 
U. S. Nav. Med. Bui. 1055. ii + 110 pp. 
Buxton, P. A., and G. H. E. Hopkins. 1927. 
Researches in Polynesia and Melanesia. Parts 
I-IV. London School Hyg. and Trop. 
Med., Res. Mem. 1. xi + 260 pp. 
Edwards, F. W. 1926. Mosquito Notes. VI. 
Bui. Ent. Res . 17: 101-131. 
- 1935. Mosquito Notes. XII. Bui. Ent . 
Res. 26: 127-136. 
Hill, G. F. 1925. The distribution of ano- 
pheline mosquitoes in the Australian re- 
