Dispersal patterns of Aedes sollicitans (Diptera: Culicidae) at the east end of Fire Island National Seashore, New York, USA.

Abstract

Dispersal patterns of Aedes sollicitans were studied by releasing females marked with UV fluorescent powders and recapturing them over the following 6–8 days. Mosquitoes were marked with yellow powder on a marsh and with orange in the adjacent woods on Fire Island; other colors were used at sites across Bellport Bay on the south shore of Long Island (1–5 km from the marsh). Of ca. 90,000 females marked in August 1983, a total of 667 was recaptured. An estimated 41% of the females flew from the marsh to the woods in the first 1–3 days after the mark—release. Marsh—woods flight continued in both directions for the rest of the recapture period. A small percentage (estimates were <0.15%) of the females dispersed to the sample area on the south shore of Long Island. Although some of these females may have migrated directly over the bay, the data suggest that some cross-bay dispersal resulted from appetential movements from the marsh eastward along Fire Island to an area where the bay narrowed (ca. 0.3 km wide) and where some females crossed to the south shore. Dispersal patterns apparently resulted primarily from appetential flights in marshes and woods, with relatively little movement directly across large water barriers.