Seasonal prevalence and succession of rice field breeding mosquitoes of central Gujarat.

Studies on seasonal prevalence and succession of mosquitoes in rice fields, revealed the dominance of Anopheles culicifacies and An. subpictus in newly transplanted fields during early months of rice cultivation, which was later replaced by the species like An. annularis, An. barbirostris, An. nigerrimus and An. tessellatus with the growth in plant height. Among culicines, except Cx. quinquefasciatus other species were prevalent during growing and later stages of the rice crop. Larval density was found inversely proportional to the height of plants, whereas species diversity maximized during growing phase due to equitable number of specimen among species.

Study of maternal behaviour in wild mice: avoidance to retrieve young and increase in cannibalic activity.

Pregnant females trapped from the wild were watched daily for parturition. Postpartum-retrieving reaction tests were carried out with all mothers using their own, alien or mixed pups. All the females when release in the cage for testing roamed around the cage but did not tend to retrieve any of the pups. Females frequently sniffed their own pups as well as alien ones without displaying any discrimination. However, when these females were left with their pups for rearing after the tests, they tended to cannibalize the latter. These findings indicate the absence of maternal retrieving in wild species of Mus, at least, under laboratory conditions.