[Features of larval development in Simulium buissoni Roubaud, 1906, and S. sechani Craig and Fossati, 1995 (Diptera: Simuliidae) in the Marquesas Archipelago (French Polynesia)]. / Caractéristiques du développement larvaire de Simulium buissoni Roubaud, 1906, et de S. sechani Craig et Fossati, 1995 (Diptera: Simuliidae) dans l'archipel des Marquises (Polynésie Française).

Two anthropophilic species are known from the Marquesas archipelago (French Polynesia): Simulium buissoni Roubaud, 1906 and S. sechani Craig & Fossati, 1995. The need to control them requires good knowledge about their larval growth, larvae being the only stage actually susceptible to control. A biometric study based on cephalic measures of the two species, shows that they both have seven larval instars. Size variations following species and sampling sites are examined, as are variations of the sex of the two last larval instars. A recolonization experiment, after treatment of a part of a river, allows us to quantify larval growing length of S. buissoni, which is about 12 days. These data allow us to determine the optimal treatment frequency.

[Fluctuations affecting the measurement of microfilaremia (author's transl)]. / Etude statistique de la variabilité caractérisant les mesures de la microfilarémie capillaire.

A statistical analysis was conducted, in order to compare the variations in values of a) blood samples obtained with several finger-pricks from the same individual in a short period of time, and b) blood samples obtained from the same finger-puncture. No significant difference was observed: both groups seem to follow a negative binomial distribution, the exponent of which is not dependent on the microfilarial count average. This common exponent is roughly equal to the volume of the blood sample, expressed in cmm.