Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T18:48:34.413Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Studies of the Responses of the female Aëdes mosquito. Part V. The Role of Visual Factors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

W. L. Sippell  and
A. W. A. Brown
W. L. Sippell
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario.
A. W. A. Brown
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The role of visual factors in the attractiveness of bodies to adult A. aegypti was investigated by exposing deer-mice in transparent or opaque, airtight or perforated, plastic containers. The visual factors proved to be roughly equivalent to the airborne emanations in attractiveness, being slightly the more attractive when the mice were normally moving, and the less attractive of the two when the mice were motionless.

The attractiveness of a moving black object was found to be nearly twice that of a stationary one. A deer-mouse immobilised by anaesthesia was roughly one-half as attractive as a normally moving one.

Mirroring surfaces are significantly more attractive than dull ones; a black enamel surface was more attractive than a flat black surface, and a silvered mirror more attractive than a polished metal surface. It was found that enhancement of the attractiveness of a black surface could be obtained by the movement of lines of shadow, not of points of light, across it.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 43 , Issue 4 , January 1953 , pp. 567 - 574
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1953

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brown, A. W. A. (1951 a). Factors in the attractiveness of bodies for mosquitoes.—Nature, 167, p. 202.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, A. W. A. (1951 b). Studies of the responses of the female Aëdes mosquito. Part IV. Field experiments on Canadian species.—Bull ent. Res., 42, pp. 575–582.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, A. W. A., Sarkaria, D. S. & Thompson, R. P. (1951). Studies on the responses of the female Aëdes mosquito. Part I. The search for attractant vapours.—Bull. ent. Res., 42, pp. 105–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, J. S. (1940). The visual responses of flying mosquitoes.—Proc. zool. Soc. Lond., (A) 109, pp. 221–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, D. G. & Brown, A. W. A. (1951). Studies of the responses of the female Aëdes mosquito. Part III. The response of Aëdes aegypti L. to a warm body and its radiation.—Bull. ent Res., 42, pp. 535–541.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolf, E. (1935). Dar Einfluss von intermittierender Reizung auf die optischen Reaktionen von Insekten.—Naturwissenschaften, 23, pp. 369–371.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zerrahn, G. (1933). Formdressur und Formunterscheidung bei der Honigbiene.—Z. vergl. Physiol., 20, pp. 117–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar