SENSITIZATION TO MOSQUITO BITES

Laboratory animals can be sensitized to mosquito bites by injections of mosquito extract or by repeated exposures to mosquito bites. The immediate reaction occurs only in sensitized animals and therefore is an allergic manifestation. The delayed reaction also appears to have a similar cause. Mosquito extracts are not toxic to animals. The sensitizing material first appears in the life cycle of the mosquito late in the series of changes which take place within the pupa. This material is limited to the head–thorax region of the mosquito, presumably to the salivary glands, and probably is composed of more than one antigenic fraction.