SOME ASPECTS OF HOST SELECTION BY MANSONIA PERTURBANS (WALK.) (DIPTERA:CULICIDAE)

Abstract

Blood meals of female Mansonia perturbons (Walk.) collected from farms and wooded areas in southeastern Ontario were identified by the serological precipitin test. The mosquitoes had fed on birds, farm animals, humans, rodents, deer, and raccoons. Preliminary observations on host preferences indicated that birds may constitute a more important group of hosts for M. perturbans than mammals. In experimental trials, attraction of M. perturbans to mammals appeared to be related to the surface area of the host. A rather high proportion of specimens collected in nature contained the blood of more than one kind of host and, in laboratory tests, M. perturbans showed a greater tendency towards multiple feeding than was shown by three species of Aedes mosquitoes.