74 
A Monograph of Culicidae. 
in the same house five years ago, and at that time they were 
very numerous, and had a rather sharp attack of fever whilst 
living there.” 
Mr. Budgett informs me that during his last visit to the 
Upper Gambia he did not get fever as in the previous year, and 
this was doubtless because he drained the ground all round the 
house and had all the standing water in the house stocked with 
the fry of fish which he was observing. This does not apply to 
all fish, however, for Captain James, I.M.S., has found fish 
constantly in company with Culicid larvae in the ricefields of 
Southern India. Nuttall * records finding Culex and Anopheles 
larvae ten times in England in company with fish. Several 
notes from Cambridgeshire mention fish, tadpoles, Asellus, &c., 
in company with the larvae. At Clayhithe, in Cambridgeshire, 
larvae were found in a fish-pond containing small pike and inch- 
long roach and dace, so that these species cannot be considered 
inimical to the larvae. Colonel Giles, on the other hand, in 
Northern India, says, he has never met with fish and the 
larvae of Culicidae in company, and points out that the ordinary 
golden carp, so common in ornamental tanks in Indian gardens, 
are so greedy of mosquito-larvae that they never allow them to 
survive in their company. 
The subject of larva-feeding fish is one that should be worked 
out. Those species which are fond of such food might well 
repay for their introduction into tanks and pieces of water near 
human habitations, where the fish of the district are not of anv 
use as mosquito destroyers. Concerning this subject, Professor 
Howard writes : “ The use of the carp for this purpose has been 
mentioned in the preceding paragraph, but most small fish will 
answer as well. The writer knows of none that will be better 
than either of the common little sticklebacks, Gastercsteus 
aculeatus or Pygosteus pungitius. They are small but very active 
and very voracious. Mr. F. W. Urich, of Trinidad, has written 
me that there is a little cyprinoid common in that island which 
answers admirably for this purpose. This fish has not been 
specifically determined, but we hope to make an effort to intro¬ 
duce it into our Southern States if it proves to be new to our 
fauna. At Beeville, Texas, a little fish is used for this purpose, 
which is there called a perch. They soon eat up the mosquito 
larvae, however, and in order to keep them alive the people adopt 
an ingenious fly-trap, which they keep in their houses, and in 
* St. Re. Mai. p. 12, T. 
