Studies of the Responses of the femaleAëdesmosquito. Part V. The Role of Visual Factors

The role of visual factors in the attractiveness of bodies to adultA. aegyptiwas investigated by exposing deer-mice in transparent or opaque, airtight or perforated, plastic containers. The visual factors proved to be roughly equivalent to the airborne emanations in attractiveness, being slightly the more attractive when the mice were normally moving, and the less attractive of the two when the mice were motionless. The attractiveness of a moving black object was found to be nearly twice that of a stationary one. A deer-mouse immobilised by anaesthesia was roughly one-half as attractive as a normally moving one. Mirroring surfaces are significantly more attractive than dull ones; a black enamel surface was more attractive than a flat black surface, and a silvered mirror more attractive than a polished metal surface. It was found that enhancement of the attractiveness of a black surface could be obtained by the movement of lines of shadow, not of points of light, across it.