Why No Malaria

In Fiji?

Scientists State that There is No Anopheles Mosquito

MORE than once, the “P.l.Mhas commented upon the curious fact that there is no malaria in Fiji, or east wards in Polynesia, although there are Anopheles mosquitoes in Fiji, and active malaria next door, in the New Hebrides.

The statement that the Anopheles was present in Fiji and Samoa was made in the “P.1.M.” some years ago, by a cor respondent who apparently spoke with authority. It appears that he was in error.

Writing in the October number of the Fiji “Agricultural Journal”, the Fiji entomologist, Mr. J. A. W. Lever, says positively that the Anopheles does not exist in Fiji, nor in Polynesia generally.

He goes on to say that, so far as Fiji is concerned, R. W. Paine (“Introduc tion to the Mosquitoes of Fiji”, 1935) studied all the fourteen local forms very thoroughly, collected them throughout the Group but does not so much as mention the malarial mosquito in his detailed paper. F. H. Taylor (writing on the subject in 1934 and 1938) similarly does not even refer once to Fiji as a locality for Anopheles.

The claim for Samoa was even more difficult to maintain as P. A. Buxton (“Researches in Polynesia and Me lanesia”) stated as long ago as 1927 that “south and east of the New Hebrides, Anopheles is absent and no malaria oc curs in the Loyalty Group, New Cale donia, Fiji or any part of Polynesia.

One may summarise the matter by say ing that Anopheles punctulatus and ma laria occur eastwards of 170 deg. E. and southwards to 20 deg. S. . . . Outside this area, malaria is found nowhere except in Aneityum (New Hebrides) which is only a fraction of a degree south of 20 deg. S.”

Finally, Buxton’s Samoan collections, made in 1914-5, comprised only half a dozen different species of Aedes and Culex which were described by F. W. Ed wards (“Insects of Samoa”, 1928), who shows that as one proceeds eastwards from New Guinea, the fauna diminishes and “in Fiji Anopheles drops out”, “It would therefore be strange to have it cropping up further east, in Sa moa, when not present in Fiji to the west”, says Mr. Lever.

Miss R. Davis, of the Audit Depart ment, Fiji, is at present on long leave.