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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 #390383
Research Project: Integrated Pest Management of Mosquitoes and Biting Flies

Location: Mosquito and Fly Research

Title: Behavioral response of adult Anopheles quadrimaculatus and Aedes albopictus to different carbohydrates in an olfactometer

Author
item XUE, RUI-DE - Anastasia Mosquito Control District
item Kline, Daniel - Dan
item MULLER, GUNTER - University Of Sciences
item BARNARD, DONALD - Retired ARS Employee

Submitted to: Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/25/2022
Publication Date: 3/28/2022
Citation: Xue, R., Kline, D.L., Muller, G.C., Barnard, D.R. 2022. Behavioral response of adult Anopheles quadrimaculatus and Aedes albopictus to different carbohydrates in an olfactometer. Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association. 69(1):63-66. https://doi.org/10.32473/jfmca.v69i1.130635.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.32473/jfmca.v69i1.130635

Interpretive Summary: A collaborative (Anastastia Mosquito Control District, the University of Sciences, Techniques and Technology of Bamako, BP 1805 Bamako, Mali, and USDA Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Medicine, Gainesville) study was conducted to determine whether adult mosquitoes (An. quadrimaculatus and Ae. albopictus), which are capable of transmitting pathogens to humans, are preferentially attracted certain kinds of sugar and the possibility of using these attractive sugars as a part of the active ingredient mixture of an improved product for inclusion in the utilization of the novel Attactant Toxic Sugar Bait (ATSB) control technology. In this paper we report on laboratory olfactometer studies to evaluate the behavioral responses of these mosquitoes to eleven different carbohydrates, arabinose, fructose, glucose, maltose, melezitose, melibiose, rhamnose, raffinose, sucrose, trehalose, and turanose. As determined by these olfactometer bioassays, male and female mosquitoes of both species responded to all eleven carbohydrates. The numbers of mosquitoes that responded to different carbohydrates varied by the species of mosquito and type of carbohydrate. These results demonstrate that these carbohydrates are good candidates to be incorporated in ATSB for further field tests.

Technical Abstract: Eleven different carbohydrates have been used for the determination of behavioral response by adult Anopheles quadrimaculatus Say and Aedes albopictus Skuse using an olfactometer in the laboratory (olfactometer bioassay). The carbohydrates used in the study are arabinose, fructose, glucose, maltose, melezitose, meliniose, raffinose, rhamnose, sucrose, trehalose, and turanose. Also, arabinose, fructose, glucose, maltose, and sucrose were used to determine behavioral response by An. quadrimaculatus and Ae. albopictus using a large cage with multichoice traps in outdoor screened enclosure (multichoice trap bioassay). The olfactometer bioassay results showed that both species of mosquitoes regardless of males or females had significantly more percent responses to arabinose, maltose, meliniose, and trehalose than other 7 carbohydrates tested. Also, both species of mosquitoes had more responses to fructose, maltose, and sucrose than to arabinose and glucose, when tested by multichoice trap bioassay. These findings may provide specific data related to the development of effective sugar-based toxic baits for the operational application in mosquito control.