ECOLOGY OF AEDES (STEGOMYIA) POLYNESIENSIS MARKS, 1951 (DIPTERA, CULICIDAE), VECTOR OF BANCROFT FILARIASIS - I - STUDIES IN COCONUTS EATEN BY RATS AS BREEDING SITES

Fallen coconut, namely the coconuts eaten by rats, are known to be mos quito breeding sites of major importance in the South Pacific area. In french Polynesia, Aedes (Stegomyia) polynesiensis Marks, 1951, Culex (Culex) atriceps Belkin 1962 et C. (C.) quinquefasciatus Say breed in it. Rats eat only young coconuts but they make only a light sample on pulp and coconut milli. Rattus rattus L. and R. exulans Peale are the two rat species that egg the fall down of coconut. Alcoholic decay of the remaining organic materials occurs immediatly after the fall down of the dead fruit. It is only after a complex biologic sequence due to the growth of different agents of the microflora (yeasts, bacteria, a lguae), of the micro-fauna (strongyloids worms, Protozoa) and of the m acrofauna (by order larvae of Diptera Syrphidae, Calliphoridae, Muscid ae, then Drosophilidae and Psychodidae) that the larvae of mosquitoes, first Culex sp. larvae then A. polynesiensis itself, can breed in it. Evolution of microflora and of fauna is described in the course of ti me in the decaying water of coconut eaten by rats. Studies on mean pro ductivity of a coconut shell and its local variations are evaluated ac cording to the local environnement. Coconut eaten by rats remain one o f the main sources of A. polynesiensis, a mosquito vector of Bancroft' s filariasis in Polynesia in all coconut plantations of volcanic high islands, and in badly or not upkeep plantations of atolls. But in Tahi ti island itself, because of a general management for human habitats o f coastal areas, this kind of breeding sites are strictly localized.