Dr. Murai Éva szerk.: Parasitologia Hungarica 23. (Budapest, 1990)
- What is the host feeding pattern of Hungarian mosquitoes like among domestic animals ? - Is the species identification of mosquitoes sufficient for establishing whether or not a blood meal comes from the animal species kept in a given stable ? - How common is the practice that a female mosquito sucks blood from more than one host species while maturing an egg batch ? Knowledge of the answers to these questions would be of fundamental importance for revealing the role of mosquitoes in disease transmission. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE Many papers have been published in the international scientific literature on the species composition, host feeding patterns, role in disease transmission, and possible methods of control of mosquitoes. Surveying the data available in the literature on mosquitoes in the computerized database of "CAB International", I found as many as 14364 papers from 1972 till September, 1989 . Of them, 946 papers deal with the relationship of domestic animals and mosquitoes. The proportion of European works is, however, very low. The mosquitoes collected in stables and different animal houses were identified using the key described by MIHÁLYI (1955). The determination of the Anopheles maculipennis species group is very difficult and laboursome. A possible method is to examine the eggs morphologically after the females have laid them (LÖRINCZ and MIHÁLYI 1937). The use of this method excludes the examination of the blood meal, as it is digested during egg maturation. Several possibilities have been suggested in the international scientific literature for identifying blood sucked by mosquitoes. TEMPELIS and LOFY (1963) used a capillary precipitin test, while TEMPELIS and LOFY RÓDRICK (1972) successfully employed a haemagglutination inhibition technique. The advantages of the agar gel diffusion technique in identifying blood meal from mosquitoes that feed on several host species were described by CRANS (1969). Rather few papers have been published on Hungarian mosquitoes. MIHÁLYI et al. (1953) gave a detailed description of mosquito species collected in 40 communities along the shore of Lake Balaton, and of their breeding sites. By specifying guidelines of mosquito control, this comprehensive work served for fighting off malaria. MIHÁLYI and GULYÁS (1963) analyzed the mosquito species described in Hungary up to 1960, their life-habits and possible methods of control. TÓTH (1977) studied the species composition of the mosquito population of the Tisza basin and determined the percentile species distribution of a total of 6315 mosquito specimens belonging to 15 species, collected from humans during blood sucking. Eighty-seven per cent of the collected mosquitoes belonged to one of the three commonest species, Aedes vexans (41 %), Culex modestus (27 %) and Aedes rossicus (19 %). In the juniper grove of Barcs, TÓTH (1981) collected, with a net and a Malaise trap, 3963 mosquito specimens of 19 species. Among these species the following three occurred most frequently: Aedes sticticus (35 %), Aedes vexans (22 %) and Aedes cinereus (11 %).
