MULTIPLE FEEDING HABITS OF SASKATCHEWAN MOSQUITOES

Abstract

Precipitin tests are used to determine the source of the blood meal of Saskatchewan mosquitoes. The tests disclose that the Aedes mosquitoes of the prairie feed extensively on man, horse, cow, and bird. The degree to which the species feed upon a particular host appears to be determined largely by the availability of that host. The number of individual specimens reacting to more than one antiserum is high, on the average one out of three belonging in this group. In spite of the multiple feeding habits of the Aedes species and their relatively great abundance, they do not appear to play a major role in the transmission of western equine encephalomyelitis.