Entomological evaluation of a rural village shows that the local Anopheles species enters houses to take blood meals but completes resting and digestion outdoors in vegetation. How should this behaviour be classified?

• A Endophagic and endophilic
• B Endophagic and exophilic ✓
• C Exophagic and endophilic
• D Exophagic and exophilic

Explanation

Endophagy refers to feeding indoors and exophagy to feeding outdoors, while endophily and exophily refer respectively to indoor or outdoor resting. A mosquito that bites indoors but rests outside is endophagic yet exophilic. This distinction matters operationally: indoor residual spraying works best against endophilic species such as Anopheles culicifacies, whereas this exophilic population would largely escape contact with sprayed walls even though it bites indoors.

Reference: Park's Textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine, 26th ed.

High-yield for: NEET PGINI-CETNExTFMGEUSMLEPLABMRCP

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