Effects of Water Parameters on Container Mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) Oviposition and Performance

<p>Water body parameters have a considerable effect on the communities that develop within them. In small container habitats like tires, the depth, surface area, and volume effect the development and success of the mosquito communities. This study investigated the choices of the adult female mosquitoes, <em>Aedes albopictus </em>and <em>Culex quinquefasciatus, </em>between different depths and surface areas. In addition, larval performance was determined under differing depth and larvae densities. Oviposition studies showed that <em>Ae. albopictus </em>had a preference for deeper habitats (χ²= 14.2902, p= 0.0139) but did not prefer any surface areas (χ²= 7.2321, p= 0.0649) though there was a trend that indicated that there could be a preference for larger surface area. Conversely, <em>Culex quinquefasciatus </em>was shown to be sensitive to surface areas (χ²= 11.1419, p= 0.0110) but not depth (χ²= 9.9828, p= 0.0757). Larval densities affected the population growth, represented by λ’, of <em>Aedes albopictus </em>(F_3,15= 19.3786, p< 0.0001) where higher densities of larvae depressed λ’ values. <em>Culex quinquefasciatus </em>had significant differences in the interaction of larval density and depth (F_9,15= 3.2870, p= 0.0204) between the low λ’ 10:10 and the high λ’ 0:5 densities. Within the 10:10 density, differences were found in λ’ with higher growth in the 7 cm depth compared to the 14 cm depth. Additionally, the 14 cm depth produced heavier female depth produced heavier female <em>Ae. albopictus </em>than 7 cm depths (F_3,15= 3.3160, p= 0.0488). Overall, it was shown that <em>Ae. albopictus </em>prefer deeper habitats while ovipositing and although this does not seem to confer greater population growth, it does result in larger female mosquitoes. In addition, <em>Ae albopictus </em>depressed the population growth of <em>Cx. quinquefasciatus </em>in high larval densities. </p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (MS)

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Biological Sciences

Year dc:date.available

2014

Author dc:creator

• Schelble, Stephanie Sue

Contributors dc:contributor

• Donald Yee
• Kevin Kuehn
• Carl Qualls

• mosquito
• Culicidae
• oviposition behavior
• life history
• tire
• Behavior and Ethology
• Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
• Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/38

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:aquila.usm.edu:masters_theses-1051