A DANGEROUS PEST

Hokitika Guardian, 19 December 1928, Page 3

A DANGEROUS PEST

NEVA .MOSQUITO FOUND IN AUCKLAND. [By Telegraph, Per Press Association. AUCKLAND. December 17. Mr David H. Graham, research officer of tin* Mosquito Research Committee of the Auckland Museum, has found a deadly mosquito new to Auckland in the hush up the Waipaua, and even as near the city as in the bash at I lelensville. The disquieting thing about tin’s stranger is that she—for it is the female that does the biting—is a sister i.if the kind that disseminates yeilow fever, and she bites day and night, "In connection with my work, I went up (o Waipoua Forest to look for new specimens,” said Mr Graham this afternoon, “ and I came across one winch is very much more vicious than any we have in Auckland. Tlie unusual thing about it is that tins Waipoua mosquito bites in the daytime us well as night-time. That is most unusual, and il gives unfortunate people no chance of rest from its attentions. These mosquitoes come out of the bush in thousands, make for the camps of road workers and attack the men. Without exaggeration, 1 have seen men’s arms literally black with them.

“ I have not identified ibe species yet, Hut: the mosquito belongs to the genus Amies. I do not say it is'a now mosquito, hut I do say it is new to Auckland. '1 hey breed in stagnant pools right in the heart ol the lorest up at Waipoua, but do not breed in water at the side of the road or ill wni.er caught in old tins, as other species will do. Ii this .lodes becomes domesticated, it will be* very bad lor us. as I am certain it is a sister ol the moquito which carries the germ m yellow fever. 1 saw people up north wlh lumps on them, not as large, as ken’s eggs, hut very near it, showing Hie virulence cf the poison. -Some ol the workmen up there have been nearly half stunned owing to the number of bites mosquitoes have inflicted. I may 1 say I also found the same mosquito in some bush at Helcnsville. *• My job now is to find out whether the same species exists in any bush he tween Helcnsville and the city, and, ol course, to see how we can set about eradicating the pest.”