Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission

Young Trout Destroyed By Mosquitoes.
By C. H. Murray. [From a July 22, 1885 letter to Prof. S. F. Baird. ]

In the middle or latter part of June, 1882, I was prospecting on the head-waters of the Tumichie Creek, in the Gunnison Valley, Colorado. About 9 o'clock in the morning I sat down in the shade of some willows that skirted a clear but shallow place in the creek. In a quiet part of the water where their movements were readily discernible, were some fresh-hatched brook or mountain trout, and circling about over the water was a small swarm of mosquitoes.

The trout were very young, still having the pellucid sack puffing out from the region of the gills, with the rest of the body almost transparent when they would swim into a portion of the water that was lighted up by direct sunshine.

Every few minutes these baby trout--for what purpose I do not know, unless to get the benefit of more air--would come to the surface of the water, so that the top of the head was level with the surface of the water.

When this was the case a mosquito would light down and immediately transfix the trout by inserting its proboscis, or bill, into the brain of the fish, which seemed incapable of escaping. The mosquito would hold its victim steady until it had extracted all the life juices, and when this was accomplished, and it would fly away, the dead trout would turn over on its back and float down the stream.

I was so interested in this before unheard-of destruction of fish that I watched the depredations of these mosquitoes for more than half an hour, and in that time over twenty trout were sucked dry and their lifeless bodies sent floating away with the current. It was the only occasion when I was ever witness to the fact, and I have been unable by inquiry to ascertain if others have observed a similar destruction of fish. I am sure the fish were trout, as the locality was quite near the snow line, and the water was very cold, and no other fish were in the stream at that altitude.

From this observation I am satisfied that great numbers of trout, and perhaps infant fish of other varieties in clear waters, must come to their death in this way; and if the fact has not been heretofore recorded it is important to those interested in fish-culture,