Longevity of Anopheles maculipennis race atroparvus, van Thiel, at controlled Temperature and Humidity after one Blood Meal

Abstract

From January to July 1938, experiments with Anopheles maculipennis race atroparvus, Van Thiel, were undertaken to discover whether humidity and the age at which the females fed influenced their longevity. It was found that they lived longer at higher than at lower humidities; that most of the females which fed did so in the first three days; that those which fed on the second day after emergence lived longer than those which fed at other ages; and that the feeding period was slightly extended in the later experiments, though only a small proportion lived long enough to take their first blood meals on the fourth and fifth days.Rather more than 50 per cent. of each batch of newly emerged adults were females.A large proportion of the deaths of unfed males and females occurred during the first three days, most of them on the second day; this mortality decreased in successive experiments.Culex fatigans, Wied., behaved similarly.