Effect of Desiccation on the Eggs of Simulium damnosum, Theobald

Abstract

IN the northern territories of Ghana and other savannah areas of West Africa, many of the smaller rivers which form the breeding places of Simulium damnosum in the rainy season are liable either to dry up completely in the course of the long dry season or to be reduced to a series of stagnant pools unsuitable for breeding. When these streams start to flow again at the onset of rains, the rapid appearance of Simulium larvæ, sometimes within a week of flooding, has long posed the question of the exact stage or condition in which Simulium damnosum survives the long dry season in those areas. The whole question, along with all the relevant literature, has been discussed fully by Crisp¹.