Circadian rhythm in the biting behaviour of a mosquito Armigeres subalbatus (Coquillett).
The crepuscular biting rhythm of A. subalbatus has been found to be a genuine circadian rhythm. When the entrained biting rhythm is allowed to freerun in constant darkness (DD) and continuous illumination (LL), it persists in DD (tau = 24.36 hr) and also in LL of ca. 0.1 1x (tau-23.82 hr) thus deviating from the strict 24 hr periodicity of the geophysical day. The biting rhythm becomes arrhythmic in LL of 1.0, 10, 0.4, 4, 40 lx even the first cycle damping away.
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Post-Graduate and Research Department of Zoology, American College, Madurai, India.
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology*; D009033:Culicidae / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007299:Insect Bites and Stings / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008027:Light