Oxygen Absorption of Natural Waters in Nairobi with Reference to Anopheline Mosquitos

Extract

The following data have been gathered over a period of about one year (January to December 1929) in the Nairobi District, Kenya Colony.

It was thought that the organic content of natural waters would certainly offer some indication of their suitability for the breeding of Anopheline mosquitos and that an investigation might suggest some definite line of approach to this intensely complex problem.

During November and December 1928, certain water sources were selected by one of us (C. B. S.), in widely separated parts of the district, for weekly sampling. In each separate area some four to eight places were chosen for routine searches for Anopheline larvae ; thus in the Q area (Table II) seven places were searched every week and in the B area (Table I) six places. From the places in each area two were chosen for routine oxygen absorption tests, one with Anopheline larvae and one without, water from these same two places being sampled and tested weekly. Thus in the Q area, spots Q 5 and Q 6 were used for this purpose, and in the B area B 3 and B 5. It is necessary to emphasise the fact that these places were separated from one another by distances of 50 to 150 yards. The choice of the source of water to be sampled was made purely on the presence or absence of Anopheline larvae at the beginning of the work.