Distribution and turnover of a mosquito (Tripteroides bambusa) metapopulation among bamboo groves

Abstract

We surveyed the distribution of a mosquito, Tripteroides bambusa (Yamada), among patchily distributed bamboo groves from 1994 to 1997 in an area of 4 km × 4 km in Saga, south‐western Japan. In the study area, this mosquito uses mainly water‐filled bamboo stumps as its larval habitat. In 1994, a year with little rainfall in the summer, T. bambusa larvae were found in 30 of the 60 groves that contained water‐filled bamboo stumps. By 1997, the number of occupied groves increased to 64, and the number of groves with water‐filled stumps increased to 109. Tripteroides bambusa was found frequently in the area covered by an orange orchard where bamboo groves were dense, and rarely in the open land where bamboo groves were sparse. Colonization of T. bambusa occurred in groves in the orchard and the open land which were less than 0.57 km away from the nearest occupied grove. Large groves were more likely to be occupied, and extinction occurred only in small groves (≤ 0.104 ha). Groves without water‐filled stumps in 1994 were less likely to be occupied in the following period than those with water‐filled stumps in 1994. These findings suggest that the T. bambusa metapopulation will not extend its distribution into all of the bamboo groves in the study area, but will not become extinct because of some highly persistent populations.