BioOne.org will be down briefly for maintenance on 17 December 2024 between 18:00-22:00 Pacific Time US. We apologize for any inconvenience.
How to translate text using browser tools
3 December 2015 Oviposition Behavior in Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) in Response to the Presence of Heterospecific and Conspecific Larvae
Paula V. Gonzalez, Paola A. Gonzólez Audino, Héctor M. Masuh
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

In mosquitoes, location of suitable sites for oviposition requires a set of visual, tactile, and olfactory cues that influences females before laying their eggs. The ability of gravid females to distinguish among potential oviposition sites that will or will not support the growth, development, and survival of their progeny is critical. Aedes aegypti (L.) and Aedes albopictus (Skuse) share ecological niches, being highly competitive in larval stage. We studied the oviposition behavior of both species in the presence of larvae of one or the other species (heterospecific or conspecific larvae). The number of eggs laid by gravid females on oviposition sites (water with different or the same species of Aedes larvae) were compared. The presence and density of heterospecific or conspecific larvae had a positive or negative effect on the ovipositional responses, measured as an oviposition activity index. For both species, the oviposition was not affected by heterospecific larvae with densities between 10 and 100 larvae in water, but a strong attractant behavior was observed for a density of 500 larvae in water. For Ae. albopictus in the presence of larvae of the same species (conspecific oviposition), we observed an attractant effect for larvae density of 10 but not for 100 or 500 larvae in water. Instead, for Ae. aegypti, we observed attraction only for 100 larvae, not for 10 or 500 larvae. Results presented here provide an additional insight about oviposition behavior responses of gravid females in the presence of conspecific and heterospecific larvae in breeding sites.

© The Authors 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com
Paula V. Gonzalez, Paola A. Gonzólez Audino, and Héctor M. Masuh "Oviposition Behavior in Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) in Response to the Presence of Heterospecific and Conspecific Larvae," Journal of Medical Entomology 53(2), 268-272, (3 December 2015). https://doi.org/10.1093/jme/tjv189
Received: 19 June 2015; Accepted: 5 November 2015; Published: 3 December 2015
JOURNAL ARTICLE
5 PAGES

This article is only available to subscribers.
It is not available for individual sale.
+ SAVE TO MY LIBRARY

KEYWORDS
Aedes aegypti
Aedes albopictus
attractant
larva
oviposition
RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS
Get copyright permission
Back to Top