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

Blood was removed through a puncture channel made on the ventral surface of the abdomen with an insect needle, by exerting gentle pressure on the abdomen. The extracted blood was blotted up with a common filter paper strip on which the identification number of the mosquito specimen was indicated in pencil, then stored in refrigerator until the precipitin test was done. Species determination Species determination of the mosquito specimens was done partly by me, partly by László PAPP, using an SMXX stereomicroscope. The scientific names of the 9 mosquito species collected during this work are as follow (after MINÁR 1990): Anopheles (A.) atwparvus Van Thiel, 1927 Anopheles (A.) maculipennis Meigen, 1818 Anopheles (A.) messeae Falleroni, 1926 Culiseta annulata (Schrank, 1776) ("Theobaldia annulata") Aedes (Ochlerotatus) caspius (Pallas, 1771) Aedes (Ochlerotatus) sticticus (Meigen, 1838) Aedes (Aedimorphus) vexans (Meigen, 1830) Culex (Culex) pipiens pipiens Linnaeus, 1758 Culex (Barraudius) modestus (Ficalbi, 1889) Exact determination of mosquitoes of the species group Anopheles maculipennis was rendered possible by scale index measurement performed using a ZEISS light microscope fitted up with an ocular micrometer, at a magnification of x800. Scales of the r? radial vein facing the apex of the wing on the dorsal side were measured. The length and greatest width of 10 scales from different parts of the radial vein were measured, from their ratio an average value was calculated which was compared with the table (WEISER 1952) published in KRAMAR's book (1958). Identification of blood meals The blood meals were identified by OUCHTERLONY's (1948) gel diffusion - precipitation technique as modified by HARTMANN-TOILLIEZ (for details see HUTH and BUDAVARI 1965 and MURRAY 1970). This is one of the least expensive methods of host identification. The method is widely used abroad; in Hungary it was applied by Dr. József MAJER with great success for identifying the blood meal of Tabanidae (MAJER 1988). The reaction is based on the phenomenon that the test blood, coming into contact with a homologous antiserum, gives a precipitation line which appears in the agar slab as an opalescent, white zone.