Abstract
The bamboo mosquito, Tripteroides bambusa (Yamada) (Diptera: Culicidae), is a common insect across East Asia. Several studies have looked at the ecology of Tr. bambusa developmental stages separately, but little is known about the factors associated with the persistence (how often) and abundance (how many individuals) of Tr. bambusa stages simultaneously studied across a heterogeneous landscape. Here, we ask what environmental and landscape factors are associated with the persistence and abundance of Tr. bambusa stages across the altitudinal gradient of Mt. Konpira, Nagasaki City, Japan. During a season-long study we counted 8065 (7297 4th instar larvae, 670 pupae and 98 adults) Tr. bambusa mosquitoes. We found that persistence and abundance patterns were not associated among stages, with the exception of large (4th instar) and small (1st to 3rd instars) larvae persistence, which were positively correlated. We also found that relative humidity was associated with the persistence of Tr. bambusa aquatic stages, being positively associated with large and small larvae, but negatively with pupae. Similarly, landscape aspect changed from positive to negative the sign of its association with Tr. bambusa pupae and adults, highlighting that environmental associations change with life stage. Meanwhile, Tr. bambusa abundance patterns were negatively impacted by more variable microenvironments, as measured by the negative impacts of kurtosis and standard deviation (SD) of environmental variables, indicating Tr. bambusa thrives in stable environments, suggesting this mosquito species has a finely grained response to environmental changes.
Highlights
Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) are among the best-studied insects because of their role as pathogen vectors [1]
Mosquito populations can be regulated by density dependence [14,15] or through interactions with other species [16], where it is necessary to consider the community of mosquito species, including species with and without medical importance [17,18,19,20], beyond the interactions of focal species with pathogens [21] or predators [22]
Concerning the bamboo mosquito, our results show that factors associated with its persistence and abundance can change through its different life stages, in the case of persistence with some covariates changing the sign of their association through consecutive life stages
Summary
Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) are among the best-studied insects because of their role as pathogen vectors [1]. Rendering a fundamental ecological question like “what are the environmental factors limiting the persistence and abundance of vectors across a landscape?” of significant importance to understand the risk of vector-borne disease transmission and to propose interventions that, through the management of vector populations, can reduce disease transmission [2,8,9]. In this sense, the physical environment (e.g., weather and climatic patterns), and biological interactions play vital roles in regulating the abundance of mosquitoes and other insects with economic importance [10,11,12,13]. Mosquito populations can be regulated by density dependence [14,15] or through interactions with other species [16], where it is necessary to consider the community of mosquito species, including species with and without medical importance [17,18,19,20], beyond the interactions of focal species with pathogens [21] or predators [22]
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