Dengue Fever Mosquito

Aedes (Stegomyia) aegypti (Linnaeus)

The only specimens of the yellow-fever mosquito that I have seen from Dominica were collected by August Busck in 1905. The Bredin-Archbold-Smithsonian Survey failed to find this species, which undoubtedly was one of the commonest pest species on the island at one time. Soper (1965) lists Dominica as one of the islands still with Aedes aegypti in 1961. This failure to find it may be due either to an eradication campaign or to not searching in buildings for adults or in artificial containers for larvae.

This domesticated mosquito, important as the vector of urban yellow fever and dengue, has been so publicized that further remarks on its biology are superfluous.

DOMINICA RECORD.—Reared from larvae in water barrel on sugar estate out in country, 28 July 1905 (Busck),2 ♀ .

13. Culex (Culex) declarator Dyar and Knab

Culex declarator is a very widely distributed neotropical species with seven currently recognized synonyms (Bram, 1967). Originally described from Trinidad, it is known from Texas to Peru and Brazil but records south of this probably refer to C. bidens Dyar. It has been collected as far north as St. Thomas in the Lesser Antilles, but it is not known from the Greater Antilles. Two of the synonyms, dictator Dyar and Knab and vindicator Dyar and Knab, came from Dominica.

This species breeds in small accumulations of water usually having a rather high vegetative organic content. These may be tree holes, artificial containers, and ground pools of all sorts, in either sunshine or shade. The adults appear to prefer animals other than man, although they will feed on man and invade his habitations under jungle conditions. It has been found infected with St. Louis Encephalitis virus in Trinidad.

DOMINICA RECORDS.—In cocoa pods, rotten, stinking, half solid water, 28 July 1905 (Busck) 4 ♂ , 1 ♀ (type series of vindicator); at bottom of rather deep (30 feet) cave in mountain side, clear sulphurous water, 28 July 1905 (Busck), 5 ♂ , 1 ♀ (type series of dictator); Batali River near Colihaut, 5 May 1966 (Gagné), 1 ♂ .