A monograph of the Anopheles mosquitoes of India / by S.P. James and W. Glen Liston.

  • Sydney Price James
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A monograph of the Anopheles mosquitoes of India / by S.P. James and W. Glen Liston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    86/238 (page 64)
    Some objections to it. have taken up the study of mosquitoes solely on account of their importance in tropical medicine, and, in the words of Professor Ray Lankester, ‘‘ so as to enable the medical men engaged in tracing the connection between mosquitoes and human disease to identify and speak with precision of the species implicated.” The ease or difficulty with which mosquitoes can be identified depends, to a great extent, upon the method by which they are classified, and it would therefore have been advantageous to medical men in the tropics if Mr. Theobald had chosen some more marked and more easily recognisable character than scale structure for the foundation of his classification. The three questions which a worker on tropi- cal diseases might reasonably ask when he comes across a new method of classifying mosquitoes are :— (1) Is the new classification necessary ? (2) Will it render the identification of species an easier matter than before ? (»3) Does it bring those species which are alike in habits and pathological significance into the same groups ? We believe that, as regards Mr. Theobald^s new classification of ‘‘ anopheles,” all these questions must be answered without hesita- tion in the negative. That the further sub-division of the genus Anojohdes (Meigen) is unnecessary, is shown by the fact that in any particular country the number of valid species of anopheles ” is so small that there is no real difficulty in distinguishing between the different species. Even after having worked for only a week or two at the subject an observer easily learns to ascertain the specific name of any specimen of anopheles ” which he encounters. As regards the second question, we believe we are expressing the opinion generally felt by medical men in the tropics when we say that the new classification adds much confusion to an already difficult subject, and renders the correct identification of specimens a much more difficult matter than before. We have not yet met any one who could, in all cases, correctly ascertain the generic names of specimens of anopheles,” according to Mr. Theobald’s classifica- tion, and the fact that numerous changes have been made in the position of species since the new classification was first instituted 64]