Host Preferences of Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in Suffolk County, New York1

Portable, intermittent, battery-operated host-preference traps which held small vertebrates were used to collect 2614 mosquitoes attracted to birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians during the summer of 1963. Many Culiseta melanura (Coquillett) and Culex p. pipiens L. females engorged on reptiles and amphibians, although they were primarily ornithophilic. Aedes canadensis (Theobald), C. restuans Theobald and Mansonia perturbans Walker engorged on all 4 classes of vertebrates, but the 2 last-mentioned species preferred birds, mammals, or amphibians to reptiles. C. territans Walker fed only on coldblooded animals. Nine new host-feeding records were obtained for Culiseta melanura, 10 for Culex pipiens, 14 for C. restuans, 4 for C. territans, 7 for M. perturbans, 7 for A. canadensis, 4 for A. aurifer (Coquillett), 4 for A. abserratus (Felt & Young), 4 for A. cinereus Meigen and 4 for A. excrucians (Walker).