MARK-RELEASE-RECAPTURE EXPERIMENTS TO ESTIMATE THE EFFICIENCY OF THE LIGHT TRAP IN COLLECTING JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS VECTOR MOSQUITOS

Efficiency of the light trap in collecting females of Culex tritaenior hynchus, the principal vector mosquito of Japanese encephalitis, was e valuated by mark-release-recapture experiments. Females collected with dry ice in the field were marked and released in a pigsty. The recapt ure rate of marked females by the light trap was so low as around 1% o r lower. Owing to this low efficiency, it is not likely that the light trap can be a useful tool in the control of Japanese encephalitis.