Software Review

Abstract

Les Moustiques d’Europe: Logiciel d’IdentiŽ sh genus Poecilia is mis-spelt Poccilia. Aedes aegypti is erroneously included in the list of species Ž cation et d’Enseignement/The Mosquitoes of Europe: an IdentiŽ cation and Training Programme. occurring in Britain, probably based on a hoax in 1919 which saw this species temporarily included F. Schaffner, G. Angel, B. Geoffroy, J.-P. Hervy, A. Rhaiem & J. Brunhes (2001). in a list of British mosquitoes. Incidentally, the initial of the senior author (Francis SchaVner) is Paris: IRD Éditions. ISBN 2 7099 1485 9. Price 65.00 (in France) or 54.35 (elsewhere) given as E on the jewel-case’s insert, not F as it should be! A frustration is that the software only (CD-ROM). seems to operate in full-screen mode, and the icon of a printer which appears on the screen can This CD-ROM has bilingual (French and English) text. The identiŽ cation of the larvae apparently only be used to print country-wise lists of mosquitoes or the bibliography. I could only and adult males and females of each of the 100 species of mosquitoes (in the genera Anopheles, print out the excellent illustrations by using an additional graphics package, such as Corel Draw. Aedes, Ochlerotatus, Culex, Culiseta, Coquillettidia, Orthopodomyia and Uranotaenia) that occur in at Neither I nor a colleague could print out some of the text. least one of 37 European countries is presented. There are species lists for each country and maps So what is the relevance of this compact disc to tropical medicine? Well, the excellent, labelled showing the distribution of the species within Europe. The known vectors of Ž larial worms (e.g. photographs of the taxonomic features used for the identiŽ cation of mosquito genera and species DiroŽ laria), arboviruses (e.g. West Nile, Tahyna, Inkoo), and the pathogens causing human or and those of the morphological characters used to distinguish anopheline mosquitoes from culicine avian malaria and miscellaneous infections such as tularaemia and myxomatosis are listed, are especially useful for anyone involved in mosquitoes or mosquito-borne infections. They together with their biology. In addition there are notes on suspected, potential and experimental would be ideal for teaching purposes. Also, the concise accounts of mosquito control (e.g. genetic, ( laboratory) vectors. There are also accounts of various control strategies, a good bibliography biological, environmental and physical ) included on the CD-ROM apply to tropical as well as of some 250 references, with publications dating from 1920–2000, and about 800 original illustemperate areas. In summary, although this very useful trations, most of which are very good. The CD-ROM does have a few shortcomings, howCD-ROM has been designed for those interested in European mosquitoes, it has broader appeal ever. There are some minor problems with the translation into English, for example. ‘Much detail’ and relevance. is used when ‘more detail’ is meant, and ‘ou’ is sometimes used instead of ‘or’. The larvivorous M. W. Service