On the escape of infective filarial larvae from the mosquitoes.
Experimentally infected females of Culex pipiens fatigans carrying infective larvae of Wuchereria bancrofti were fed, on the 16th day p.i., on four different solutions, which were offered "cold" (24 degrees C) or "warm" (34 degrees C) in Petri dishes as open fluids. Thus the sucking mosquitoes did not have to bend their labia. Only the "warm" human serum stimulated any considerable number of infective larvae (24.8%) to leave the mouthparts of the mosquitoes. 1289 infective C. fatigens females lost only an estimated 6.4% of their infective larvae of W. bancrofti, when they were maintained on sugar-water until their natural death. Most of the more heavily infected mosquitoes died relatively soon after the filarial larvae had reached maturity (15-20 days p.i.). The main stimulus provoking the filarial larvae to migrate into the labium is believed to be the movement of the muscles of the pharyngeal pump. Mature larvae protrude their anterior ends from the tip of the labellum. There they seem able to distinguish between suitable and unsuitable external conditions and accordingly they will either leave the proboscis completely or retract into the labium.