Poster Details
COMPARISONS OF STOICHIOMETRY IN THE MOSQUITO AEDES ALBOPICTUS ACROSS URBAN-RURAL GRADIENTS IN SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI
The Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, is an invasive mosquito species that is of medical importance due to its aggressive biting behavior and ability to vector viruses such as dengue and Zika. Aedes albopictus breeds in natural and artificial freshwater habitats such as tires and cemetery vases. Since May 2017, The University of Southern Mississippi and The Mississippi State Department of Health have collaborated to determine distributions of container mosquito species by collecting and identifying larvae from locations across an urban-rural gradient in five Southern Mississippi counties every two weeks. Aedes albopictus from these locations were reared to adult to analyze carbon and nitrogen stoichiometry. Our data show no differences in C, N, and C:N across population densities (p>0.05) or across counties (p>0.05), but N did vary across time (p<0.05) whereas C and C:N did not (p>0.05). These results show that there are no stoichiometric differences across urban and rural environments or across counties, but that stoichiometry could vary across time with analysis of future months. As mosquito performance and disease transmission are affected by mosquito stoichiometry, these results may contribute to a broader understanding of mosquito-borne disease in nature.
Catherine Dean (Primary Presenter/Author), The University of Southern Mississippi , catherine.dean@usm.edu;
Nicole Mackey (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), The University of Southern Mississippi, nicole.s.mackey@usm.edu;
Wendy Varnado (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Mississippi State Department of Health , wendy.varnado@msdh.ms.gov;
Donald Yee (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), The University of Southern Mississippi, donald.yee@usm.edu;