The animal parasites of man : a handbook for students and medical men / by Max Braun.

  • Braun, Max (Maximilian Gustav Christian Carl), 1850-1930.
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The animal parasites of man : a handbook for students and medical men / by Max Braun. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    436/488 (page 412)
    Germany, &c., as well as in the Tropics. Moreover, in A. costalis^ Loew ; A. funeslus, Giles (Africa); A. quadrimaculalus, Say (North America), and A. rossii^ Giles; the latter is perhaps identical with A. superpictus^ Gr., as well as with A. culicifacies (India). \^Anopheles maculipennis and A. claviger are the same. Certainly neither maculipennis nor bifurcatus Save been found in the Tropics. Anopheles quadrimaculalus, Say, is the same as A. maculipennis. There is no evidence that all Anophelines carry malaria, but there is much to show that certain .species only are capable of so doing ; Rossii will not do so.—F. V. T.]. Everyone is aware that mosquitoes swarm at sunset in fine weather^ and at that time seek out human beings and other warm-blooded animals to take food. In this regard, however, the sexes differ, in so far as that it is almost without exception that the females only suck blood, while the males subsist on the juices of plants (blossoms or fruits ’). After sucking, and when night has fallen, the mosquitoes find a place of refuge, for which purpose they utilise the grasses or foliage of trees and bushes, or inhabited or uninhabited rooms of houses, also cellars, stables, verandahs, &c., where they also pass the day. [Some mosquitoes bite in the daytime—Stegomyia and some Anophelines ; some bite right into the night, as Culex fatigans and C. pipiens.—F. V. T.]. The period required for digestion varies according to the temperature. It takes two days in summer, and may take up to ten days or more in cool weather. After digestion is complete more food is taken up, this being necessary for the maturing of the sexual products. It is still unknown under what circumstances copulation takes place' ; in any case, sooner or later the females are fecundated, and when the ova have become mature, and the season is not too far advanced, they seek a suitable place in which to deposit them.^ These are larger or smaller, permanent or temporary, collections of standing water, pools, puddles, lakes, pits, water in rain-water barrels, basins, &c. Nevertheless, certain kinds prefer certain waters ; thus Anopheles {claviger') maculipennis and several of the Culices seek stagnant water overgrown with swamp vegetation and decomposing vegetable matter; A. bifurcatus and certain Culices, clear water with some vegetation (such as fountains and the lakes in gardens and parks) ; Culex pipiens has a preference for rain-water barrels, even though the water be dirty and evil-smelling. [I have found the larvae of Anopheles bifurcatus living in great numbers in ponds and lakes completely overgrown with floating water-weeds, and those of Culex pipiens in liquid manure. Sexual Organs of the Mosquito.—The female has a pair of ovaries, opening into a single tube, by the ovarian tubes ; into the single tube opens a duct coming from the spermathecae, and also a mucous gland. The spermathecas ^ Both males and females may be kept alive in captivity for a long time if given fruits, or even only sugar and water. -The female Culex has three receptaculas seirnnalis, while the female Anophele has one receptaculum seminis. ^ It is certain that the females perish immediately after depositing the ova; but this dees not always hold good, as a part of them survive for a few days. The males die soon after copulation.