The Relation between the hatching of the Eggs and the Development of the Larvae of Stegomyia fasciata (Aëdes calopus), and the presence of Bacteria and Yeasts

Abstract

The clearing action of mosquito larvae in turbid water and their scarcity or absence in clean water, is an old-established popular belief in mosquito ridden districts of both the old and new world. If the presence of certain species of Anopheles larvae in clear running water, where they doubtless feed on algae, be excepted, it is probable that this general observation is in the main correct. The fact that numbers of mosquito larvae are frequently present in the small collections of clear water which occur in the cut ends of bamboos, the axils of leaves, or the smaller rock or root pools, is an apparent but not a real contradiction of the correctness of this popular belief, because in these instances one of two possibilities may have occurred. Either the large number of dormant eggs which hatched when rain first filled the receptacle was sufficient to check and control bacterial or yeast development from the start, or, as is more likely in the case of root or rock pools, the turbidity due to bacteria or yeasts had been rapidly cleared as the rapacity of the quickly growing larvae increased beyond the source of nutriment.