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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Gainesville, Florida » Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology » Mosquito and Fly Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #300568
Title: Comparative estimates of density and species diversity in adult mosquito populations landing on a human subject and captured using light and suction traps.

Author
item Barnard, Donald

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/6/2014
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Comparative responses of 21 species of mosquitoes to light traps (LT) and suction traps (ST) and captured using the human landing collection method (HL) varied in accordance with collection technique but data analyses for most species revealed significant interaction between collection method and the time of day collections were made. Estimates of mosquito density (during the 60 min immediately following sunset) for selected mosquito species ranged from 0 (HL), 0.017 (LT), and 0.018 (ST) females per min (Culiseta melanura), to 0.200 (HL), 0.054 (LT), and 0.040 (ST) females per min (Culex erraticus), to 1.061 (HL), 2.499 (LT), and 0.298 (ST) females per min (Ochlerotatus infirmatus). Species diversity indices varied significantly according to collection method. Eight mosquito species (38%) were undetected by at least one of the three collection methods and five species (14%) were undetected by two of the collection methods. The results enable development of species-specific numeric algorithms that are used to relate adult mosquito density estimates from mechanical traps to the mosquito landing rate on a human being.