Mayflies and mosquitoes

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Mike Jones
Lecturer in Biology, BIOLS

Long ago, in the early days of the University, between the mid 1960s and the early 1980s, before the men in uniforms came home from the tropics and Mrs Thatcher realised that there was little danger of malaria in Finchley, a strange group of people - strange even by the standards of their other colleagues - worked in BIOLS.

Dedicated to finding out how mosquitoes find people to bite, they spent much of their working time in Africa. Even when surrounded by the delights of the swinging Sussex of that era, it was obvious that their hearts belonged in Keneba or Wali Kunda, beside the great, green, greasy, Gambian river.

Their leader, Mick Gillies, died a year ago this month but has left a book of memoirs which spans a major part of the last century and which, in passing, illustrates the huge changes that have taken place.

Born in 1920 into an upper-middle-class family, with four servants and a governess (his father was an eminent plastic surgeon), Mick qualified in medicine but his true love was natural history. During his early career as a junior medical officer in India and the far East, and as an embassy medical officer in Moscow, we see him slipping off at every possible opportunity to collect mayflies (in Russia, presumably followed by the KGB).

Eventually, in 1950, he found his niche, working on mosquitoes for the Colonial Service at Amani in Tanzania. His experiences there led, in 1965, to the setting up of the group at Sussex.

The book spans a time of hope for the eradication of malaria and then of disappointment as the disease returned to its position as a major scourge of mankind.

Although he does not mention this, Mick Gillies was awarded the Chalmers and Christophers Medals by the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene for his now-classic field work.

Despite his eminence in the field of medical entomology, Mick always described himself as an enthusiastic amateur. To the end, he retained his interest in his first love, mayflies.

Mayfly on the Stream of Time is published by Messuage Books. Enquiries to Eva Gillies, Whitfield, Hamsey BN8 5TD, tel. 473828.

Mick Gillies in his natural habitat (the Gambia)