Osmotic Regulation in Mosquito Larvae

Abstract

1. The processes of osmotic regulation in the larvae of Aedes aegypti and of A. detritus have been studied by determination of the freezing-point of samples of fluid collected from different parts of the gut. 2. In A. aegypti, kept in fresh water (its normal environment), the fluid passing down the intestine to the rectum is isotonic with the haemolymph. In the rectum it becomes strongly hypotonic before being eliminated. 3. In A. detritus, kept in sea water (its normal environment), the opposite process is observed, the fluid in the rectum becoming hypertonic to the haemolymph and approximately isotonic with the external medium before being eliminated. 4. In A. detritus, which is able to live in dilute media as well as in sea water, the only two specimens from fresh water available for examination were found to have the rectal fluid hypotonic to the haemolymph. 5. The ability of A. detritus, not possessed by A. aegypti, to produce an hypertonic fluid in the rectum is tentatively associated with a region in the anterior part of the rectum and lined with an epithelium distinctly different from that in the remainder of the rectum. This anterior region has not been found in A. aegypti.