The log cabin Democrat., 1909-10-29


 on the mosquito have discov
 II cred new method of exter- l
 minating the pest. This method consists in propagating and | distributing a parasitic worm which lodges in the body of the mosquito and kills 1t or checks it's egg-laying powers.
 It has for several years been recog- nized that the mosquito is one of the worse public enemies of the American people. Upward of 15,000 deaths oc- cur from malaria, which is spread by the mosquito alone. This figure does not count the vast number of people laria and thus easily succumb to oth- CT diseases. The discomfort caused by the mosquito in many parts of the country is also a grave injury to pros perity. Therefore, anything which tends to eXterminate the mosquito is of immense public benefit.
 How greatly some regions are in need of relief from mosquitoes has just been shown by the dispatches from Chenier au Tigre, large and fertile island in the Gulf, off New Or leans. The mosquitoes there have bred in such quantities that the inhabi- tants have been forced to keep in doors altogether, while the cattle have been killed by the mosquitoes filling up their nostrils and throats and cho- king them.
 The new worm which kill the mos quito is known to science as agomer- mis culiois-meaning "roundworm of the mosquito'-and is recognized as destructive parasite of the wicked in sect. It is also called the "hairworm" in many places on account of it's re- semblance to small hair It spends at least part of its life in the belly of the mosquito, and, in the case of the female, when it does not kill her, it prevents her from reproducing her species-a result equally satisfactory
 Very little is known of the life his tory of the worm, or how it spends the early stages of it's existence. It is a new discovery. It was first found and identified, only a short time ago, by pr. John B. Smith, who, as ento- mologist attached to the New Jersey agricultural experiment. station, at New Brunswick, has charge of the mosquito survey of his state, which has a widespread reputation for pro ducing remarkable crop of mosqui- toes.
 There are, as is well known, many species of mosquitoes in New Jersey. But the worst of them all, so far as ability to annoy goes. Is the brute with striped legs. This is the real and original Jersey mosquito" It breeds in marshes, though 1t flies thence for great distances, and scientific men know it as "culex solicitans."
 Necessarily, this species cuts a very large figure in the problem which Dr Smith is engaged in tackling. With a view to studying its life history in detail, he has built on a marsh a cage of wire net. with framework of scant- ling. big enough for himself to occu- py, In this cage he has reared the marsh mosquitoes, watching them through all the stages of their de- velopment, in the midst of their nat ural surroundings. Incidentally, he has subjected many specimens to mi croscopic examination. to find out how the egg-sacs of the females developed. and other such points.
 On number of occasions, while thus studying the female insects, he noticed that their abdomens seemed abnormally enlarged. Finally, his curiosity being aroused by this phe- nomenon. he tore open the belly of one of the insects. and found inside of 1t two-hair-like worms about a third of an inch long, and nothing else. They were something new to him, and so he sent the worms to the gov ernment helminthologist signifying worm man"-in Washington.
 The worm man, Dr. Charles Wardell Stiles, promptly identified them as round worms" of the kind popularly known as hair worms" or wire worms" He also gave them the long Latin name already mentioned and said that they were undoubtedly para sites of tne mosquito. But in the meantime Dr. Smith had started in to examine large numbers of marsh mos ouitoes for worms. In lot that was sent in from BarN2gat bay he found many infested. In fact. every collec- ton received at the experiment sta ton from Raritan river to Cape May yielded numerous worms.
 He thinks 1t beyond doubt inst the parasite shortens the life of the nos quito it infects-though this, of course. Is a matter unimportant com pared to the prevention of reproduc- tion. Apparently. the worm does not diminish the insects appetite at all.