DEADLY NEW MOSQUITO

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 6, 22 December 1928, Page 5

DEADLY NEW MOSQUITO

bad AFTER-AFFECTS OP' BITE. MENACE TO AUCKLANDERS. AUCKLAND, Dec. 17. Bad news was brought to town today by Mr. David H. Graham, i search officer of the Mosquito Research Committee of the Auckland Museum He has found a deadly niosqmto neu to Auckland in the bush at Waipoua. an 6 V en as near the city as in the bush ,at Helensville. -The disquieting thing about this stranger is that she- lot is the female that does the biting—is a sister of the kind that disseminates yellow fever. T , “In connection with my work J. nent up to Waipoua forest to look for new specimens,” said Mr. Graham, and 1 came across one which is very much more vicious than any we have m Auckland. The unusual thing about it is that this Waipoua mosquito bites in the daytime as well as the night time. That is most unusual and it gives the unfortunate people no chance of rest from its attentions. These mosquitoes come out of the bush in thousands, make for the camps of road manors and attack the men. Without exaggeration I have seen men’s arms hteially black with them. I have not identified the species yet, but the mosquito belongs to the genus aedes. I do not say it is a new mosquito, but i do say it is new to Auckland. They breed in stagnant • pools right in the heart of the forest up at Waipoua, but do not breed in water at the side ot the road or in water caught in old tins as other species will do. “If this aedes becomes domesticated,” continued Mr. Graham, ‘it I -will be very bad for us, as I am cer- . tain it is a sister of the mosquito which carries the germ of yellow fever. I saw people up north with lumps on them not as large as hen’s eggs, but very near it. This shows the virulence of the poison. Some of the workmen up there have been nearly half-stunned owing to the number of bites the mosquitoes have inflicted. I may say 1 also found the same mosquito in some bush at Helensville. My job now is to find out whether the same species exists in any bush between Helensville and the city and, of course, to see how we can sot about eradicating the pest.