In Orissa State, India, the double gel diffusion technique was used to analyze 97,405 bloodmeals of all fed anophelines that were caught during standardized monthly surveys in 12 malarious study villages, from 1982 through 1988. Anopheles culicifacies contributed the highest number of smears from the 19 Anopheles species recovered. It was observed that a pronounced predilection to take mixed bloodmeals attenuates the vector potential of the species concerned. Consequently, prevalences based only upon "pure" (unmixed) primate bloodmeals provide the most accurate way to assess the intensity of feeding contact that actually occurs between a given species and man. By this method, the ranking order is Anopheles fluviatilis, An. culicifacies and An. annularis (N); a sequence which concurs with current knowledge on the vector status of malaria mosquitoes in Orissa.