FAUNA AND FLORA O F MANGROVE SWAMPS
159
water and rain water mix. Prolific breeding is often associated with
sunny pools in which an alga Chaetophora sp. is growing.
A . (Anopheles) baezai Cater is also common in brackish pools but
rarely in identical situations. It prefers more shaded areas. This form
is not an habitual biter of man.
Culicine mosquitoes are also abundant, finding breeding places in
pools at ground level, in water collecting at the bases of leaves of Nypa,
in rot holes in the trees and in the burrows of the crabs.
Aedes fumidus Edwards (distributed from Singapore to Celebes)
tends to occur in pools on the ground ; A . niveus Ludlow (widespread
from India to south China and the larger Sunda Islands) occurs in
collections of water a t about 44 m high in the trees ; A. littoreus Colless
is also a tree dweller. A . butleri Theo. (again widespread from India to
South China and the larger Sunda Islands) is the commonest biter of
man in nypa plantations, and its larvae occur in ground pools. A.
amesii (Ludlow) which occurs from Malaya and Sumatra to the Philippines and Thailand is the commonest biter of man within the mangal
and it develops in rot holes. ( A . Rep. Inst. med. Res. Malaya, 1960.)
My attention was drawn by Dr Ivan Polunin of the University of
Singapore to mosquitoes settling on and apparently feeding on the
back of the head of the mud-skipping goby Boleophthalmus boddaerti
(Pallas). Unfortunately, owing to the nature of the soil and its extreme
softness it was impossible to capture the mosquito. This phenomenon
was first reported by Sloof and Marks (1965) who described that, in the
Solomon Islands, the mosquito Aedes (Qeoskusea) long$orceprps Edwards
was captured while biting a species of Periophthalmus. This species of
mosquitoes breeds in the holes of land crabs* near the coast and bites
man readily. It is the commonest species of its subgenus in the
Solomons.
Marks (1947) has shown that five species of mosquito are associated
with mangroves in Australia. Aedes vigilax, a species common from
Thailand to Australia, breeds in all pools to landward of the mangroves
below high water mark. The eggs seem to be laid in pools left by one
high tide and develop through their life cycle before the next series of
high tides. The pools chosen for egg laying and in which the larvae
have been found are almost always in full sunlight (twenty-two out of
twenty-seven examined, were in full sunlight ; four had partial shade,
with the larvae in the unshaded portions). Aedes (Mucidus) alternans
Westwood (which extends from Timor to New Caledonia) breeds in both
* This use of the term " land crab " is t o be discouraged-it is completely uninformative, for one cannot from the context distinguish whether the crab in question is a true
land crab or a species of Sevarmu which is well on the way to becoming a land crab.
6*
159
water and rain water mix. Prolific breeding is often associated with
sunny pools in which an alga Chaetophora sp. is growing.
A . (Anopheles) baezai Cater is also common in brackish pools but
rarely in identical situations. It prefers more shaded areas. This form
is not an habitual biter of man.
Culicine mosquitoes are also abundant, finding breeding places in
pools at ground level, in water collecting at the bases of leaves of Nypa,
in rot holes in the trees and in the burrows of the crabs.
Aedes fumidus Edwards (distributed from Singapore to Celebes)
tends to occur in pools on the ground ; A . niveus Ludlow (widespread
from India to south China and the larger Sunda Islands) occurs in
collections of water a t about 44 m high in the trees ; A. littoreus Colless
is also a tree dweller. A . butleri Theo. (again widespread from India to
South China and the larger Sunda Islands) is the commonest biter of
man in nypa plantations, and its larvae occur in ground pools. A.
amesii (Ludlow) which occurs from Malaya and Sumatra to the Philippines and Thailand is the commonest biter of man within the mangal
and it develops in rot holes. ( A . Rep. Inst. med. Res. Malaya, 1960.)
My attention was drawn by Dr Ivan Polunin of the University of
Singapore to mosquitoes settling on and apparently feeding on the
back of the head of the mud-skipping goby Boleophthalmus boddaerti
(Pallas). Unfortunately, owing to the nature of the soil and its extreme
softness it was impossible to capture the mosquito. This phenomenon
was first reported by Sloof and Marks (1965) who described that, in the
Solomon Islands, the mosquito Aedes (Qeoskusea) long$orceprps Edwards
was captured while biting a species of Periophthalmus. This species of
mosquitoes breeds in the holes of land crabs* near the coast and bites
man readily. It is the commonest species of its subgenus in the
Solomons.
Marks (1947) has shown that five species of mosquito are associated
with mangroves in Australia. Aedes vigilax, a species common from
Thailand to Australia, breeds in all pools to landward of the mangroves
below high water mark. The eggs seem to be laid in pools left by one
high tide and develop through their life cycle before the next series of
high tides. The pools chosen for egg laying and in which the larvae
have been found are almost always in full sunlight (twenty-two out of
twenty-seven examined, were in full sunlight ; four had partial shade,
with the larvae in the unshaded portions). Aedes (Mucidus) alternans
Westwood (which extends from Timor to New Caledonia) breeds in both
* This use of the term " land crab " is t o be discouraged-it is completely uninformative, for one cannot from the context distinguish whether the crab in question is a true
land crab or a species of Sevarmu which is well on the way to becoming a land crab.
6*