Mosquito Ecology - Science topic

Also check. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6304771/

Dear Priscilla,

Of course - I will send that to you now. It is worth noting, however, that this protocol was developed for use in remote field sites, so you may find laboratory protocols (e.g. from Benedict, M. Q. (2007). Methods in Anopheles research. Malaria Research and Reference Reagent Resource Center (MR4)) more suited to your work.

All the best,

Nichar

Dear Nishant Gupta,

First teaching the people how to defend themselves against mosquitos… Biological defend (which attack larva of mosquitos)… The chemical protection is not so good…

This following idea is a great idea and is for the help of humanity against mosquito: ‘biological vaccination of mosquitos with weakened bacteria or viruses’--- that is a realizable thing - who will do it he deserves the Nobel Prize in Medicine!

Regards,

Laszlo

Dear Ammar,

Please check if this paper is interesting for you.

Best,

Guy

Hello, 

I think muscles 8 and 11 are respectively the mandibular muscles and the dorsal retractor of the maxillae (The book from Christophers, 1960 on Aedes aegypti has some nice schematics on page 583).

Sincerely,

Clement

Dear Kapila,

The identification of the specimen is quite difficult due to the quality of the pictures. Did you sampled it in coastal zones?

I suggest you to use the MosKeyTool which is a new free key used for mosquitoe identification

I attach you a file about how to install it

Best regards

Carlos

 Thank you very much Ms. Rana and Mr. Barry, your inputs have been very helpful!

 https://parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1756-3305-7-201

Hi Dora

Interestingly your question has several aspects that need to be addressed.

1. The first point is whether the systemic insecticide is present in exactly the same chemical state in the blood of the rodent as it is in the feeding device - is there any metabolism of the insecticide by the rat so the fleas on the rat are feeding on a metabolite?  If there is metabolism you need to evaluate the effect of that process on whether it increases or reduces the activity of the insecticide.

2. How is the uptake of the insecticide monitored in the rats, i.e. I assume here you have performed the pharmacokinetics?  Also there may be differences in the bioavailability according to the individual rat so again PK results need to be averaged at the very least in order to set up you in vitro feeders.

3. From the flea aspect you need to check that the insects take similar blood meals.  This is not easy and may be associated with strain differences.

So, the way I would address this problem would be to see if it is possible to avoid having to make too many complex biochemical analyses on small quantities of blood, etc.  Would it be possible to perform the test you describe, using the rat strain on rats and the feeding device strain on the feeding device in one experiment and then perform and kind of cross-over experiment in which a sepearate group of the rat strain is fed on the artificial feeder and a group of the artificial feeder strain is fed on rats?

Of course, in the cross-over experiment the fleas may not feed as vigorously or become replete but the ones that do feed well could be compared across experiments.  No doubt this will raise other questions but as a first step it is something to consider.

Best wishes, Ian

Dear Miles,

We have worked extensively on engineering aspects of malaria control and they play a crucial role in mosquito control. For e.g. water stagnating around a community tape water supply can be directly channelized through a plastered covered drain to a pond and that will stop water stagnation and mosquito breeding. Similarly in rural areas lot of waste water gets collected in front of the houses and this can be avoided by constructing  a soakage pit through applying best engineering methods. Leveling of ditches through earth work on wasteland and thereafter tree plantation on such ground control mosquito breeding and proves to be eco-friendly method of malaria control.  Flushing of irrigation canals, lining of canals to stop water seepage and intermittent irrigation are all engineering methods of malaria control and we have successfully demonstrated it in Kheda district of central Gujarat in India.    

You can follow these papers.

Kent RJ, Norris DE, 2005. Identification of mammalian blood meals in mosquitoes by a multiplexed polymerase chain reaction targeting cytochrome b. Am J Trop Med Hyg73: 336-342.

Fornadel, C.M., D.E. Norris. 2008. Increased endophily by the malaria vector Anopheles arabiensis in southern Zambia and identification of digested blood meals. Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. 79(6): 876-80.

Ngo K.A. and Kramer L.D.  2003.  Identification of mosquito blood meals using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with order-specific primers.  Journal of Medical Entomology, 40(2): 215-222.

Best,

Al-Amin

EDTA

I think it needs to be noted that o'nyong-nyong virus is the one medically important  arbovirus that can be transmitted by anophelines and culicines. In practically all other instances, culicines are the exclusive or nearly exclusive vectors. In general, the main genera involved are Aedes and Culex. An arbovirus may have been isolated from numerous species but may reflect the presence of an undigested infected blood in the midgut or a salivary gland infection barrier, for example. Susceptibility must not be confused with the ability to transmit.

Hi! Sumodan,

If you are interested check the following link

"Wanted: Zika virus researchers 

What are the MRC looking for? The organisation seeks twelve to eighteen month proposals that will provide novel, critical and timely insights into the nature of the risk posed by the Zika virus and/or potential avenues for its management or prevention. The MRC says that robust evidence is needed for the risks associated with Zika transmission and infection and is obtained as soon as possible. 

The MRC says that the studies should build on existing relationships, either with researchers in affected countries and/or with relevant data/resource holders. Interdisciplinary proposals are welcomed, where appropriate. 

It adds that possible avenues of research to be funded by this initiative could include:........." 

Aside from the fact that Ivermectin is not approved for human use in the US, part of prevention involves wearing long sleeves and using insecticides like DEET topically.  So, taking Ivermectin and then wearing long sleeves and using insecticides like DEET sort of cancel each other out.  I favor trying to eradicate the mosquitos by reducing stagnant water breeding grounds.  Unfortunately, I do not believe there is an easy and totally effective preventative approach.  Very major public health issue.

Hello Sumodan:

There is a succesful story using non- vector Aedes aegypti mosquitos to displace vector species in order to reduce dengue, zika and chikunguña viruses in tropical countries. This international program is called Eliminate  Dengue and is beeing tested in Australia, Colombia, Vietnam, Brazil and Indonesia.  They are releasing mosquitos infected with Wolbachia, a natural bacteria that live within insect cells and are passed from one generation to the next through the insect’s eggs. Releasing a limited number of mosquitoes with Wolbachia to breed with wild mosquitoes, over a small number of generations, will result in all the mosquitoes having Wolbachia.When male mosquitoes with Wolbachia mate with female wild mosquitoes without Wolbachia, those females will have eggs but they won’t hatch. Also Wolbachia prevents  mosquitos to transmit virus to humans. I think this is the best example of competitive exclusión ( Cytoplasmic incompatibility) See more in the following link: http://www.eliminatedengue.com/our-research/wolbachia#sthash.w2V9UKfo.dpuf

Regards,

Luis Miguel

There could be the problem of infection with Lambornella spp, a Hymenostome endoparasite, in your colony. This infection had once wiped off my entire colony of Anopheles stephensi......Please beware of

Hello Ammar:

You can measure the attactive and repellent effect of certain chemicals toward insects with a two-way olfactometer in no-choice bioassays to expose the insect to the odor of certain chemicals. Olfactometer experiments are commonly used in chemical ecology research to study how arthropods locate their hosts. For instance you can test to what extend volatile organic compounds emitted at different concentrations are used by herbivores (plant antagonists themselves) to localize their food plant evaluated.  Also how males are attracted to the sex pheromones in bioassays with synthetic pheromones. In the following link you can find additional information and methodologies used to measure the attactive and repellent effect of plant volátiles in insects. http://www.invasive.org/proceedings/pdfs/10_615-619.pdf

Regards,

Luis Miguel

Vários testes realizados em laboratório mostraram boa capacidade de predação da espécie Notonecta undulata Say (Notonectidae), durante o seu ciclo de vida, em larvas de Aedes aegypti (L.). Veja o artigo de ELLIS, R. A. & Borden, J. Predation by Notonecta undulata (Heteroptera: Notonectidae) on Larvae of the Yellow-Fever Mosquito. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 63(4):963-973, 1970.

Dr Willy Jablonka  is right.  However, I would suggest that at initial stage, make a whole homogenate of a large # of larvae (for mosquitoes it economical). Find total protein and load 200 µl on gel, it will tale a lot

Good luck

Dear Claudio (and Marcelo - both of you haven't changed at all, BTW!),

their facebook (https://www.facebook.com/kitepatch?fref=ts) and Indiegogo-page (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/kite-patch#/updates) say that they performed what they call phase 1 in Uganda in April & May 2015. They are not going into what exactly they tested and how they did it, but it seems they also looked at possible attractive properties. Judging from their patent application (http://www.google.com/patents/WO2014028835A2?cl=en), these are probaly CO2-mimics.

I hope you are well, best wishes,

Andreas

Hi, this isn't a direct answer but hopefully a useful one anyway. Have a look at WHO's "Training module on malaria control: Entomology and vector control", both the participants' and tutors' guides. The link to both documents can be found here:

Hope this helps.

There are few methods of measuring the mosquito density in an area.

1. Total knockout density in a room at a given time. It can be measured by  spraying the pyrethrum in a room and collecting the mosquito on a white bed sheet on the floor of the room. Different species may be identified by means of  binocular microscope and counted.

2. By means of UV light trap.

3. Hand collection: by means of suction tube. Per man hour mosquito room density etc.

Dear Jessica,

you can conserve your specimens over silica gel desiccant without problem with DNA if you entend to use molecular methods to asses the infection rate of the mosquitoes. If you want to detect plasmodium protein, you can use the same storage on the field but  you will have to freeze quickly your vials at -20°c. 

Ok, then maybe a sticky ovitrap will give you a better sample of the females that have been able to get a blood meal and are now ready to lay eggs. Aedes aegypti do not lay all the eggs in the same container so you wont necessarily get an exact sample of the eggs but by combining numbers of eggs - if you give them access to a surface above the water - and the number of retained eggs in the females stuck to the sticky surfaces you might get an idea of numbers and relative fitness of blooded females.

Farrukh ...

Sending more information and links to consultation. I believe it can help you in your doubts and research. Despite being in Portuguese, read the summaries and any questions, feel free to contact me.

link1: http://www.scielo.br/pdf/rsbmt/v40n2/a14v40n2.pdf

link2: http://bases.bireme.br/cgi-bin/wxislind.exe/iah/online/?IsisScript=iah/iah.xis&src=google&base=LILACS&lang=p&nextAction=lnk&exprSearch=458106&indexSearch=ID

link3: http://www.berdon.com.br/publicacoes/RELAT%C3%93RIODAAVALIA%C3%87%C3%83ODAADULTRAPPELAFIOCRUZ.pdf

Best regards

yes, that is correct, just read the ECDC statements on Dengue:

Potential vectors are not as likely to carry diseases-competent virus' as they might be in Brazil and/or other countries with mediterranean climates. But in European countries with suitable climate (e.g. mediterranean), the issue is currently discussed.

I believe that the following paper is good for your question

Arez, A. P., Lopes, D., Pinto, J., Franco, A. S., Snounou, G., & Do Rosário, V. E. (2000).  Plasmodium sp.: Optimal Protocols for PCR Detection of Low Parasite Numbers from Mosquito (Anopheles sp.) Samples. Experimental parasitology, 94(4), 269-272.

pleas let me know if it  is good for you

Disease free Aedes albopictus can be otained from the Thai Ministry of Public Health, and U.S. CDC.  Disease free Aedes aegypti can be obtained from U.S. CDC and U.S. USDA.

The mosquito's legs are covered by numerous scales consisting of the uniform microscale longitudinal ridges and nanoscale cross ribs Such special delicate microstructure and/or nanostructure on the leg surface give a water contact angle of approximately 153 degrees and give a surprising high water-supporting ability. It was found that the water-supporting force of a single leg of the mosquito is about 23 times the body weight of the mosquito, compared with a water strider's leg giving a water-supporting force of about 15 times the body weight of the insect. Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17677603

The mosquito larvae estimation depend on the species you would like to count, for Aedes for example there was more than one density estimation method and indicators, such as stegomaya indices and Breautue indices. For Anopheles as well you can use the dipping estimates of 5-30 dipps depend on the size of the breeding sites.

I consider that QuEChERS method can help you to extract pesticides from mosquito larvae as it can be easily adapted to any matrix

Great many thanks  -looks like it will do the job!

Please apologize for this question but is Coelomomyces specific to Anopheles larvae?

You can use Ae aegypti mitochondrial DNA as positive control (see Werren et al. 1995, 1997). Good luck.

Please find the pdfs of Reinert, Harbach and Kitching. I hope it will help you.

Best,

GL

Thanks, Problem solved 

Did you already read Focks (2003)???

yes dear pankaj they can very well lay eggs on wet filter papers. i have used wet sterile whatman filter paper no 1 for egg laying by gravid anopheline females in test tubes or small bowls. you can try it but keep the tubes in a dark room and use loose cotton plugs to block the entrance of test tubes.

Many studies on this topic have been done and others ongoing in Burkina Faso.

Could take a look on the following authors papers: Diabate et al. Dabire et al. Sawadogo et al. and Maiga et al. 2012, 2014. It might be helpful and could find in there more on the studies field sites.

It may be a zooplankton. for more information about that , you should send that for a parasitology laboratory.

I am happy to provide you with my idea. I looked at your publications as see"Effects of Drought and Floods on Crop and Animal Losses and Socio-economic Status of Households in the Lake Victoria Basin of Kenya". You may have much of the data you can correlate to test your new hypothesis. You will need a way to determine change in the quantity of wetland habitat "hectors of mosquito breeding habitat seasonally throughout the study period within a study zone". This is your first variable. You may look at NASA earth observatory web site: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Search/index.php?q=kenya which contains large amounts of data seasonally for all locations. The link I pasted in will start you off in Kenya but look around and see if this site will provide you with a tools to quantify or estimate the mosquito breeding habitat you wish to study. From your publications it looks like your group have the methods and tools to determine mosquito number and type / hector throughout the study zone (second variable). I suspect that within your study zone you would see variation in mosquito density with higher mosquito numbers closest to breeding habitat with diminishing numbers in dry areas within the study zone. In addition, you would see variation from wet to dry season. Within the mosquito population you may choose to determine % infected mosquito and with which malaria parasite which your group also have the tools to perform (third variable). Another variable you may wish to consider is host on which the mosquito population has been feeding. You can determine this by reverse line PCR on collected mosquito populations. The attached article describes the technique for identifying the host species which has been fed upon by the american tick but the method would likely work on mosquito. I do now know which probes would be best for the host animals in your area so you may be able to dig this out of the literature. Correlation of these variables would make a very interesting manuscript. I hope this helps. You may contact me any time for assistance with your research. Best to you.

I doubt that the same species of bats that pollinate flowers also feed on mosquitoes to any great extent. However mosquitoes themselves are good pollinators since both the females and the males visit flowers to feed on nectar. They use the carbohydrates in the nectar to fuel their wing muscles, females to look for blood meals and oviposition sites and males to swarm and look for females. While mosquitoes may be hated and sometimes an almost unbearable nuisance the real threat is not from the mosquitoes themselves but from the pathogens they transmit so the question might be reposed to "are pathogens beneficial to us"?

Hi Anders

Indeed Or. pulcripalpis is considered a southern species. The northernmost record I know in Western Europe is from south to Paris (pers. obs). However they are a few historical records from southern England (Marshal 1938). Let me know if you find more data.

Best

Francis

Thanks Mr. Nani Das. I'm sure upto genus of that specimen it was Mansonia. I've also got uniformis, annulifera, dives and indiana in Bangladesh.

Dear Touhiduddin Ahmed

I think you have to apply all applicable collection techniques such as Oviposition Traps, Back Bag Aspirator, Hand Aspirator, BG sentinel trap, Miniature CDC trap, Resting Site Traps, different size of Pet Bed Traps, Knock Dawn technique and different combination of attractants to cover the differences of Insect behavior, ecology and environment.

Hi! I have some experience with other Anopheles sp. I wait for 4 day (after blood feeding) for collect eggs. In generally one Anopheles female laying about 100 egg at a time.

It seems that Phlebotomus wenyoni was described in 1930 as a new species and in 1931 it was described as a subspecies to P. major. It seems to have been resurrected as a species again. The paper by Badakhshan et al describes the taxonomic confusion regarding P. major s.l. (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1948-7134.2011.00152.x/pdf)

This form of anopheles as i know is a mutant form, they are dark and blakish in colour and rare to found in nature.

Dear Hanjabam, optomotor anemotaxis is upwind flight (anemo=wind, taxis=directed movement) whereby the insect assesses its progress relative to the ground through optical feedback, i.e. by maintaining visual contact with contrasting elements in the surroundings, such as the ground underneath. Compare it with swimming upstream in a river: if you don''t see the shore, you have no idea if you are making any progress.

Dear Khalid

Maggot is a general word for fly larvae, and in general English usage by non-specialists it might be applied to any immature insect larval stage that lacks legs, or any worm-like organism infesting a commodity or crop.

If we consider the phylogeny of Odonata or dragonflies and Diptera this might explain why the holometabolous fly (e.g. mosquito) immature stages are termed larvae, or larval instars depending upon their developmental stage, and in most entomological text books the immature stages of hemimetabolous Odonata are termed "nymphal instars" or nymphs (starting with protonymph). Naids is an alternative name, and not one I have generally used as a UK-educated entomologist (Swansea and Imperial college).

So to answer to your question, many immature insects have a scientific term with larva used for holometabolous and nymph used for hemimetabolous insects. Specific taxa may also have more descriptive or specific terms, and general names associated with them.

It may also be a matter of preference, background and education.

When I teach entomology I prefer to use the terms larval and nymphal instars, and refer to the current versions of insect classification in Gullan & Cranston (2010) The Insects, an outline of entomology, 4th edition Blackwell Wiley

or free e-book of 3rd edition

I find this an excellent and inspiring book for my research and for engaging insects, and it is well worth buying the 4th edition.

Try contacting the Institut Louis Malardé, Unit of Infectious Emerging Diseases, French Polynesia, Public Health, Infectious Diseases in the French Polynesia.

An entomological study in that area would be really interesting. I really would like to have a look.

Hi Rosa! You don´t use DNA Barcode as Dr. Sallum? is a very efective methodology!!!

To my knowledge, the principals attractive substance for Mosquitoes are: CO2, 1-ocetn-3-ol (Octenol), Lactic acid, Phenols and Butanone, acetic acid and Amino acid.

Consider that mosquitoes are more attracted to moving subjects, dark colors and that the attractiveness varies according to the activity carried out by the individual.

You can see:

- HOEL D.F., KLINE D.L., ALLAN S.A. & GRANT A. 2007. Evaluation of carbon dioxide, 1-octen-3-ol, and lactic acid as baits in mosquito magnet™ pro traps for Aedes albopictus in north central Florida. Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association, 23(1): 11–17.

- HOEL D.F., OBENAUER P.J., CLARK M., SMITH R., HUGHES T.H., LARSON R.T., DICLARO J.W. & ALLAN S.A. 2011. Efficacy of ovitrap colors and patterns for attracting Aedes albopictus at suburban field sites in north-central Florida. Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association, 27(3): 245–251.

- YEE W.L., & FOSTER W.A.. 1992. Diel sugar-feeding and host-seeking rhythms in mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) under laboratory conditions. Journal of Medical Entomology 29: 784-791.

- KAWADA H., TAKEMURA S-Y., ARIKAWA K., & TAKAGI M. 2005. Comparative Study on Nocturnal Behavior of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. Journal of Medical Entomology 42(3): 312-318.

- H. KAWADA, S. HONDA & M. TAKAGI 2007. Comparative Laboratory Study on the Reaction of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus to Different Attractive Cues in a Mosquito Trap. Journal of Medical Entomology 44(3): 427-432.

Hope this help

We have found Aedes sp. above 3000 masl, in a colombian paramo

Thank you Sanjay for the info. Which mosquito species is it? How about the meterology (temperature, wind ----)and envvironment conditions(village setting or open area, etc)?