Abstract
In order to clarify the actual situation of insects of medical importance carried into Japan by aircrafts, the survey was conducted by checking the inside of the international aircrafts just after arriving at Tokyo International Airport, during the period from July 1972 to August 1973. Of 42 aircrafts surveyed, 10 species of the pest insects, excluding several unidentified species, were captured in 24 aircrafts. Musca domestica Linne and Culex fatigans Wiedemann were collected most abundantly, 59 and 24,respectively. Of 10 species identified, 5 species were exotic ones and the other 3 were either the exceptional or rare ones around Tokyo. It is worth to note that an engorged female of Aedes aegypti (Linne), an important vector of yellow fever, and Anopheles subpictus Grassi, a malaria vector, were caught. It must be emphasized that important mosquito species were carried mainly by the flights via Bangkok, Hongkong or Manila, whilst the house flies were abundantly carried by Seoul and Khavarovsk lines. In order to know the possible place where the mosquitoes embarked on the aircrafts, a discussion was made considering the actual time schedules of the flights. As for the house flies the levels of the insecticide susceptibility between the captured insects and Japanese colonies were compared.
