201. The Role of Certain Northern Michigan Bog Mats in Mosquito Production
- Author
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William H. Irwin
- Subjects
Geography ,geography.geographical_feature_category ,Open water ,Mosquito larvae ,Ecology ,Mosquito breeding ,Spring (hydrology) ,Popular opinion ,Natural enemies ,Bog ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics ,Predation - Abstract
The data upon which this paper is based are the results of an investigation of the limnological role of bog mats in mosquito production. One of the characteristic features of bog lakes in the Great Lakes region is the occurrence of marginal mats which vary in kind and differ in extent through all degrees from small fringes to large conspicuous areas many acres in size. In their totality these mats in Northern Michigan cover many square miles. Since such mats overgrow the surface of the open water of bog lakes, they impound, both within and upon themselves, great quantities of water in such a way as to appear to provide unusually favorable conditions for mosquito breeding. However, popular opinion is conflicting on this point, some contending that they must be great breeding grounds and others insisting that mosquito larvae do not occur in these mats. Thus far, the writer has not found in the tremendous literature dealing with mosquitoes any paper which treats specifically with this problem. In this investigation the writer has attempted to evaluate certain kinds of bog mats as mosquito breeding grounds and to determine the linnological features of these areas in relation to mosquito life. This study was begun in the summer of 1935 and continued throughout each succeeding spring and summer through 1939. Intensive field work was carried on during the spring and early summer since these periods were soon discovered to be particularly significant. The writer is indebted to Professor Paul S. Welch under whose direction the work was done; to Professor Robert
- Published
- 1942
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