LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS ON THE IRRITABILITY OF ANOPHELES ATROPARVUS AND ANOPHELES STEPHENSI TO DDT

Abstract

Two strains of Anopheles atroparvus, one resistant and another sceptible to DDT and two of Anopheles stephensi, one resistant and one susceptible to DDT were tested for their irritability to DDT. Various laboratory investigations of the effects of insecticides on mosquito behavior and their irritability were carried out. In these series of experiments a comparison was made between the results obtained by a tentative method proposed in 1960 by the WHO, Expert Committee on Insecticides in which the mosquitoes are confined over the treated surface in a small plastic chamber and in a large cage. Under the large cage conditions DDT-resistant A. stephensi were more readily irritated by the insecticide than a susceptible strain of the same species