THE NONSPECIFIC NATURE OF THE RESPONSE OF MOSQUITO FLIGHT-MUSCLE TO FILARIAL PARASITIZATION

The significance of the histological changes induced by filarial larvae in the indirect flight muscle fibres of susceptible female mosquitoes was investigated by inflicting mechanical (needle-puncture) injury on thoracic tissues of male and female mosquitoes of various species. Mechanical injury caused the flight muscle of all mosquitoes, irrespective of species, sex or filarial susceptibility, to react in the same way as that of filaria-infected, susceptible females; other thoracic tissues responded in a similar fashion. Since these responses are closely akin to those observed by earlier authors in various tissues of other insects subjected to experimental trauma, it seems reasonable to regard the reactions of indirect flight muscle of mosquitoes to filarial larvae as an example of a common, non-specific response by insects to a range of traumatic stimuli. © 1990 Springer-Verlag.