The
scary-sounding title of this work is "Blood-sucking mosquitoes of the
subtribe Culisetina (Diptera, Culicidae) in world fauna". Even scarier, it
was originally published in Leningrad in 1967 by A.V. Maslov. The English
translation is from 1989, financed by the Smithsonian Institution and the
National Science Foundation.
The foreword feels extremely "Soviet". Instead of scientific information, Maslov opens by pointing out that mosquitoes attacks labour brigades in Siberia and diminish their productivity. He has personally witnessed this during studies of the Eleventh Forest-Cutting Brigade in the Vyazensk district of Khabarovsk region. The same problem has also been documented from Arkhangelsk and the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Even worse, milk yields from collective farms get lower when the cattle are pestered by the blood-sucking insects. Maslov just can't admit that he's a nerd caught in his bug period!
But then, who wants to end up in Siberia?
The rest of the book is extremely boring and technical, although it seems to be about the actual mosquitoes...
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