A review of the role of mosquitoes in the transmission of Malayan and bancroftian filariasis in Japan.

Malayan filariasis is found in Japan only on the small island of Hachijo-koshima and is transmitted there by Aëdes togoi and probably by Culex pipiens pallens.Bancroftian filariasis is widely distributed in the three main islands, and is of particularly high endemicity in the south. Of the ten mosquito species proved experimentally susceptible to Wuchereria bancrofti, only Aëdes togoi and Culex p. pallens seem to be responsible for transmission of the disease. The former species is of importance only in fishing villages situated on a rocky seashore with many tidal pools or in villages engaged in the processing of dried sardines. Culex p. pallens is domestic in habit, highly anthropophilic and highly susceptible to W. bancrofti infection, and must be considered the most important vector of this disease in Japan.