Dr. Murai Éva szerk.: Parasitologia Hungarica 23. (Budapest, 1990)

ERÖSS (1988) studied the efficacy of larvicides and the mosquito population of flood areas along the River Danube. From data obtained for larvae and imagoes collected from the skin of humans with a mosquito aspirator, he found that 98 % of the mosquito population belonged to the Aedes genus and almost 1 % each to the genera Culex and Anopheles. The chapters of HIEPE and RIBBECK's (1982) excellent book on veterinary arachnoentomology are devoted to the morphology, life cycle and epidemiological significance of mosquito species and to methods available for controlling larvae and imagoes. MATTINGLY (1969) analyzed the biology of mosquito-borne diseases in detail. BARDOS (1975) studied the transmission of Tahyna virus by mosquitoes in Czechoslovakia, Austria and Hungary, and suggested that Aedes vexans was the main vector. GILOT et al. (1977) studied the vector role of Anopheles maculipennis and Culiseta annulata in the epidemiology of rabbit myxomatosis. HÁJKOVÁ (1983) summarized bovine parasitoses caused by arthropods. MINÁR and ROSICKY (1975) reported data on species of the Anopheles genus occurring in cow barns of Southern Moravia. French researchers, SUZZONI-BLATGER et al. (1980) studied the occurrence of Anopheles messeae on sheep farms. Studies conducted in the United Kingdom have shown that the sheep is the commonest host species of the mosquito Aedes flavescens (SERVICE and SMITH 1972). Numerous authors published data on the host feeding patterns of mosquitoes on the basis of examining the blood meal by precipitation. The host origin of the blood meal of mosquitoes was studied in Southern Moravia by MINÁR and TEMIN (1970), around Ljubljana by TOVORNIK (1980), around Gdansk by LACHMAJER (1982) and in the vicinity of Cairo by ZIMMERMANN et al. (1988). Studying mosquitoes of the genus Aedes, Polish researchers found blood meals derived from several animal species. In connection with this they emphasized the epidemiological importance of blood sucking from different hosts (ZOLTOWSKI and KAZIMIERCZUK 1978). RIHA et al. (1981) reported losses caused by blood-sucking Diptera, including Culicidae, by decreasing the body mass gain of grazing heifers. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sampling Mosquitoes were collected in 3 villages between 5 August 1988 and 31 August 1989 (see Table 1). They were caught with a mosquito aspirator from the walls and furnishings of the buildings. Mosquitoes not containing blood, collected from a given building at a specific time, were given the same identification number. Specimens that contained blood were given an individual identification number after the blood had been extracted, then were kept in a glass vial until further examination.