Blood-sucking flies (Diptera) and Myxomatosis transmission in a mountain environment in NSW. 2. Comparison of the use of man and rabbit as bait in evaluating vectors of Myxomatosis.

Abstract

Human baiting and the use of rabbit-baited cone-drop traps were compared as techniques for gathering information on the host relationships of biting flies in a mountain environment of south-eastern Australia. Bait-trapping was carried out at four stations during the period of dusk activity for biting flies on 21 days covering all seasons. Neither technique proved entirely satisfactory by itself, and it was shown that the precipitin testing of blood-fed specimens taken at bait is an essential ancillary to both. When used in conjunction with the precipitin method both techniques provided useful data on the feeding behaviour of mosquitoes, but neither was satisfactory for the Ceratopogonidae, and (although still inadequate) the rabbit-baited cone-drop trap provided data on the local Simuliidae not yet obtained by any other method. Human baiting was unquestionably the simpler technique, and yielded a far greater amount of pertinent data, particularly for mosquitoes, the predominant myxomatosis vector group of the region. An analysis is made of the vectors of myxomatosis and their relative importance in the transmission of that disease in the study region.