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Different
species are
found in
different
kinds of
collections
of water.
The breeding places of Anopheline mosquitoes.
In localities where mosquitoes are abundant, larvæ can usually be found in
collections of water of every kind. Thus they may be found in the few drops of
water which collect at the base of a leaf of a tree, or in broken earthenware pots,
or in bottles or tins; in fire buckets, rain-water tubs or iron tanks; in clean
and dirty puddles by the roadside or in large ponds and irrigated rice fields;
in the foul water of a cesspool; in the eddies and backwaters of a mountain
stream. In particular instances this statement will be found to be true as
regards the larvæ of Anopheline as well as of other kinds of mosquitoes, and it
teaches us that when searching for Anopheline larvæ we must not neglect to
examine every collection of water. A very interesting and important
observation has been made, however, regarding Anopheline mosquitoes,
namely that under favourable conditions they select, to a great extent, the
kind of collection of water in which to deposit their eggs. Thus in a place
surrounded by many different kinds of collections of water the larvæ of one
species of Anopheline will be found in shallow muddy pools only, the larvæ of
another species in deep ponds only, and the larvæ of a third species in irrig-
ation watercourses or running streams only. It is possible to arrange the
species of Anopheline mosquitoes met with in India in groups, each group
containing the species which are alike in their choice of breeding places.
The chief and most distinct of these groups are as follow:-
Group I.- Species breeding in open water with much aquatic  vegetation,
at some distance from houses, such as deep ponds, swamps, marshes and deep
pools under trees or in a wood.
barbirostris.
nigerrimus.
The adult insects of this group are very rarely found in houses; they are
essentially "wild" mosquitoes.
Group II.-Stream breeding species. The larvæ of these species are
almost always found in more or less swiftly running streams. Irrigation
watercourses form the chief breeding places in the Punjab for one of the
members of this group (culicifacies).
listoni.
jeyporiensis.
culicifacies.