Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2pzkn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-23T13:36:57.746Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The association between larval parasitic water mites (Hydracarina) and Anopheles implexus (Theobald) (Diptera, Culicidae)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

A. W. R. McCrae
A. W. R. McCrae
Affiliation:
East African Virus Research Institute, Entebbe, Uganda
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The parasitic larvae of two species of water mites were studied on resting and biting Anopheles implexus (Theo.) from the Zika Forest near Entebbe, Uganda. Details are given of the mites' morphology, positions of attachment, growth stages and visible effects on hosts. Living larvae of the more numerous mite species (designated as species F, Limnesiidae) were only moderately reliable indicators of the nulliparous state of female hosts, whereas those of the other species (species G, Arrenuridae) were more reliable nullipar indicators, evidently owing to their far more rapid development. The presence of living larvae of either species not completely full-grown denoted the nulliparous state of female hosts with certainty. Male mosquitoes showed consistently lower infestation rates than females from the same resting samples, but the incidence of the different growth classes of species F indicated that these mites departed from hosts of either sex with equal facility and therefore regardless of whether the hosts returned to oviposition sites or not. Frequency distributions of species F on each host sex fitted most closely to highly clumped negative binomials, and biological interpretation of patterns of decline in mite numbers on females in successive Sella's stage groups, and other data, provided evidence of there being at most a negligible amount of mite-mediated host mortality.

The study confirms the usefulness as well as the limitations of the presence of parasitic water mites as a rapid means of age-grading female mosquitoes, and suggests several new applications.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 66 , Issue 4 , December 1976 , pp. 633 - 650
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anscombe, F. J. (1950). Sampling theory of the negative binomial and logarithmic series distributions.—Biometrika 37. 358–382.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, J. Y. (1936). Observed infestation of culicine mosquitoes by larval hydrachnids in Nigeria.—W. Afr. med. J. 9, 20.Google Scholar
Cantarow., A. & Schepartz, B. (1967). Textbook of biochemistry.—898 pp. London, Saunders.Google Scholar
Christophers, S. R. (1911). The development of the egg follicle in Anophelines.—Paludism no. 2, 73–88.Google Scholar
Clements, A. N. (1963). The physiology of mosquitoes.—393 pp. Oxford, Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Corbet, P. S. (1960). Recognition of nulliparous mosquitoes without dissection.—Nature, Lond. 187, 525–526.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Corbet, P. S. (1962). The use of external characters to age-grade adult mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae).—Proc. XI Int. Congr. Ent. 2, 387–390.Google Scholar
Corbet, P. S. (1963). The reliability of parasitic water-mites (Hydracarina) as indicators of physiological age in mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae).—Entomologia exp. appl. 6, 215–253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corbet, P. S. (1964). The ovarian condition of certain sylvan mosquitoes in Uganda (Diptera, Culicidae).—Bull. ent. Res. 55, 367–382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corbet, P. S. (1970). The use of parasitic water-mites for age-grading female mosquitoes.—Mosquito News 30, 436–438.Google Scholar
Crofton, H. D. (1971 a). A quantitative approach to parasitism.—Parasitology 62, 179–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crofton, H. D. (1971 b). A model of host-parasite relationships.—Parasitology 63, 343–364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Detinova, T. S. (1962). Age-grouping in Diptera of medical importance with special reference to some vectors of malaria.—Monogr. Ser. W.H.O. 47, 216 pp.Google ScholarPubMed
Gillett, J. D. (1957). Age analysis in the biting-cycle of the mosquito Taeniorhynchus (Mansonioides) africanus Theobald, based on the presence of parasitic mites.—Ann. trop. Med. Parasit. 51, 151–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillies, M. T. (1954). The recognition of age-groups within populations of Anopheles gambiae by the pre-gravid rate and the sporozoite rate.—Ann. trop. Med. Parasit. 48, 58–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gillies, M. T. (1955). The pre-gravid phase of ovarian development in Anopheles funestus.—Ann. trop. Med. Parasit. 49, 320–325.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gillies, M. T. (1961). Studies on the dispersion and survival of Anopheles gambiae Giles in East Africa, by means of marking and release experiments.—Bull. ent. Res. 52, 99–127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillies, M. T. & Wilkes, T. J. (1972). The range of attraction of animal baits and carbon dioxide for mosquitoes. Studies in a freshwater area of West Africa.—Bull. ent. Res. 61. 389–404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graham, P. (1969). Age grading of mosquitoes from parasitic mites.—Mosquito News 29, 259–260.Google Scholar
Hodges, A. (1902). Sleeping-sickness and Filaria perstans in Busoga and its neighborhood, Uganda Protectorate.—J. trop. Med. Hyg. 5, 293–300.Google Scholar
Howard, L. O., Dyar, H. G. & Knab, F. (1912). The mosquitoes of North and Central America and the West Indies. Vol. 1.—520 pp. Washington D.C., Carnegie Inst.Google Scholar
Hunter, G. C. & Quenouille, M. H. (1952). A statistical examination of the worm egg count sampling technique for sheep.—J. Helminth. 26, 157–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kühlhorn, F. (1962). Untersuchungen über die Bedeutung der Vermilbung bei Anopheles.—Proc. XI Int. Congr. Ent. 2, 870–874.Google Scholar
Lloyd, M. (1967). “Mean crowding”.—J. Anim. Ecol. 36, 1–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macan, T. T. (1950). The anopheline mosquitoes of Iraq and north Persia.—Mem. Ser. Lond. Sch. Hyg. trop. Med. no. 7, 109–219.Google Scholar
McCrae, A. W. R. (1972). Age-composition of man-biting Aedes (Stegomyia) simpsoni (Theobald) (Diptera: Culicidae) in Bwamba County, Uganda.—J. med. Ent. 9, 545–550.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McCrae, A. W. R., Boreham, P. F. L. & Ssenkubuge, Y. (1976). The behavioural ecology of host selection in Anopheles implexus (Theobald) (Diptera, Culicidae).—Bull. ent. Res. 66, 587–631.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall, J. F. (1938). The British mosquitoes.—341 pp. London, British Museum (Natural History).Google Scholar
Mer, G. G. (1936). Experimental study on the development of the ovary in Anopheles elutus, Edw. (Dipt. Culic.).—Bull. ent. Res. 27, 351–359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, R. (1957). Major evolutionary lines in water mites.—Syst. Zool. 6, 137–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, C. D. & DeFoliart, G. R. (1970). The physiological age of Wisconsin Aedes mosquitoes parasitized by water-mites.—J. med. Ent. 7, 628.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mullen, G. R. (1974). Acarine parasites of mosquitoes. II.—Illustrated larval key to the families and genera of mites reportedly parasitic on mosquitoes.—Mosquito News 34, 183–195.Google Scholar
Mullen, G. R. (1975). Acarine parasites of mosquitoes. I.—A critical review of all known records of mosquitoes parasitized by mites.—J. med. Ent. 12, 27–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mullen, G. R. (in press). Acarine parasites of mosquitoes. III. Collection, preservation and rearing techniques used to study aquatic mites (Acarina: Hydrachnellae) parasitic on mosquitoes.—Proc. New Jersey Mosq. Extermination Assoc. 61 (1974).Google Scholar
Münchberg, P. (1954). Zur Kenntnis der an Culiciden (Diptera) schmarotzenden Arrenurus- Larven (Hydracarina), sowie über die Bedeutung dieser Parasiten für Wirt und Mensch.—Z. ParasitKde 16, 298–312.Google Scholar
Patil, G. P. & Joshi, S. W. (1968). A dictionary and bibliography of discrete distributions.—280 pp. Edinburgh, Oliver & Boyd.Google Scholar
Polovodova, V. P. (1949). Determination of the physiological age of female Anopheles.—Medskaya Parazit. 18, 352–355. [In Russian.]Google Scholar
Prasad, V. & Cook, D. R. (1972). The taxonomy of water mite larvae.—Mem. Am. ent. Inst. no. 18, 326 pp.Google Scholar
Rosay, B. & Nielsen, L. T. (1969). Confirmation of ovarian cycles and longevity in some Utah mountain Aedes with a note on the presence of mites.—Proc. Utah Mosq. Abatement Assoc. 22, 30–35.Google Scholar
Robles, R. R. (1969). Studies on the dispersion of insect populations.—235 pp. Ph.D. thesis, Univ. London.Google Scholar
Service, M. W. (1973). The biology of Anopheles claviger (Mg.) (Dipt., Culicidae) in southern England.—Bull. ent. Res. 63, 347–359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southwood, T. R. E. (1966). Ecological methods with particular reference to the study of insect populations.—391 pp. London, Methuen.Google Scholar
Taylor, L. R. (1961). Aggregation, variance and the mean.—Nature, Lond. 189, 732–735.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, L. R. (1965). A natural law for the spatial disposition of insects.—Proc. XII Int. Congr. Ent., 396–397.Google Scholar
Uchida, T. (1932). Some ecological observations on water mites.—J. Fac. Sci. Hokkaido Univ. Ser. 6, 4, 143–165.Google Scholar
Wigglesworth, V. B. (1972). The principles of insect physiology.—7th edn, 827 pp. London, Chapman Hall.CrossRefGoogle Scholar