Body Size and Wing Shape Measurements As Quality Indicators of Aedes Aegypti Mosquitoes Destined for Field Release

Overview

Journal Am J Trop Med Hyg

Specialty Tropical Medicine

Date 2013 May 30

PMID 23716403

Citations 48

Authors

Heng Lin Yeap

Nancy M Endersby

Petrina H Johnson

Scott A Ritchie

Ary A Hoffmann

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

There is increasing interest in rearing modified mosquitoes for mass release to control vector-borne diseases, particularly Wolbachia-infected Aedes aegypti for suppression of dengue. Successful introductions require release of high quality mosquitoes into natural populations. Potential indicators of quality are body size and shape. We tested to determine if size, wing/thorax ratio, and wing shape are associated with field fitness of Wolbachia-infected Ae. aegypti. Compared with field-collected mosquitoes, released mosquitoes were larger in size, with lower size variance and different wing shape but similar in wing-thorax ratio and its associated variance. These differences were largely attributed to nutrition and to a minor extent to wMel Wolbachia infection. Survival potential of released female mosquitoes was similar to those from the field. Females at oviposition sites tended to be larger than those randomly collected from BG-Sentinel traps. Rearing conditions should thus aim for large size without affecting wing/thorax ratios.

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