11
Notes on different Anophelines.
My. culicifacies.—The larvæ of this species were found in a great
proportion of oases in wells. They were also found in streams, and would have
been oftener were there more permanent streams in Saisette. They were also
found in railway borrowpits and rice-fields. A very few adults were found
in huts.
The larva is stated in James and Liston's " Anopheline Mosquitos of
India" to have fully developed palmate hairs on the thorax. The present
writer's experience, in several districts of this Presidency in which he has
hatched out mosquito larvæ at different places, has been that palmate hairs are
rarely found on the thorax in this species, and certainly never fully-developed
ones. This is unfortunate, for it means that the larvæ of one of the principal
Malaria-carriers of the west of India have to be put in the class whose charac-
teristics are mainly negative.
My. listoni.—The larvæ of this species were also mostly found in
wells. A few adults were found in cowsheds and other buildings.
In the standard description of this mosquito, given in James and Liston,
the 3rd longitudinal vein of the wing is said to be white-scaled, this being one
of the principal distinguishing characteristics, as this vein in the case of
My. culicifacies is black-scaled. Dr. Bentley, however, states in his
report that in the variety of My. listoni present in Bombay this vein is
black-scaled. In Salsette, both in the case of adults caught in houses, and in
the case of those hatched out from larvæ, the 3rd longitudinal vein of
My. listoni was found to be white-scaled. This and the fact that the
first dark area on the costa of the wing is not, as in the case of My.
culicifacies, divided into two by a white spot, made it quite possible to
distinguish My. listoni from the other, without having recourse to comparison
of the relative length of wing-cells, as has been recommended.
Dr. Bentley further states that the larvae of My. culicifacies are
indistinguishable from those of My. listoni. There are species the larvæ
of which may be difficult to distinguish from those of My. culicifacies,
but as far as Salsette specimens, go, the larvæ of no two species are
easier to tell from one another than those of My. culicifacies and My.
listoni, the appearance of those of the latter, with the large palmate
hairs on the thorax and the abdominal palmate hairs conspicuously prominent
at the sides of the segments, exactly corresponding with the illustration given
in James and Liston.
Like My. culicifacies, My. listoni was not found to be the carrier by
Dr. Bentley, in the case of the limited number of specimens of adults
caught in Bombay Island and dissected, during his investigation. In parts of
Bengal it is the chief carrier of Malaria, but it has not, so far, been found
infected in Western India.
Neocellia stephensi.—This species, which is the carrier in the case of
Bombay, is noted by Dr. Bentley as being scarce in the northern and non-
malarious part of Bombay Island. In the Thána District, outside Salsette, the
writer has found its larvae in a nullah near Kalyán, and in the stream running
into the creek at Bhiwandi just above the tidal limit. The present investiga-
tion has shown it to be so very scanty in Salsette that it is extremely unlikely
to be the carrier of the Malaria which is so common over a large area of
that island.
Ny. fuliginosus.—This is the tank-breeding mosquito par excellence.
It is found in practically any tank one cares to examine in the Thána District.
It is also the mosquito most commonly found in rice-fields and railway
borrow-pits. Next to N. rossii it is the commonest mosquito in houses in
Salsette. It is mentioned by Dr. Bentley as having been once found in
Bombay.
In Burma and in Northern India this species has bean found in some
places to be the principal carrier of Malaria. Its ubiquitousness in Salsotte