Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 July 2009
The room used for housing a colony of Anopheles punctulatus punctulatus is described. Its main features were an insulation system to enable some degree of temperature control during the winter months, and eight windows to ensure that the room had good natural lighting.
The adults were kept in breeding cages, which were large enough to allow the insects to manoeuvre during mating and oviposition, and designed to ensure a high humidity and at the same time expose the adults to daily fluctuations in light intensity. Provision was made for easy access to the interior during feeding and management operations.
The essential feature of larval management was that the larvae were kept throughout their development as separate batches, representing daily age groups. During the first three days after hatching they were left in the dishes containing soil and water in which the eggs were laid. From the third day, they were reared in shallow glass dishes. They were fed with Farex at intervals throughout the day.