The Behaviour and Ecology of Mosquito Vectors
dc.contributor.author | Benton, Nicholas | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2024-04-24T12:42:49Z | |
dc.date.available | 2024-04-24T12:42:49Z | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10464/18366 | |
dc.description.abstract | Mosquitoes continue to vector pathogens to humans around the world. Research into the unique behaviour and ecology of vector species enables new avenues of control to be developed. I examined two mosquito vector species. The first, Coquillettidia perturbans (Walker, 1856), has been incriminated as a competent vector of eastern equine encephalitis virus (EEEV) in North America. The behaviour and ecology of Cq. perturbans is poorly studied due to how difficult it is to study the immature stages. I attempted to collect and rear Cq. perturbans to establish a laboratory colony. A multi-generational colony was not successful in part to high mortality rates in the 1st instar and pupal stage as well as a suspected obligatory diapause in later larval instars. Despite this, it was possible to artificially blood-feed and have them oviposit viable egg rafts, which hatched and developed into 4th instar larvae. Larvae and pupae collected from the field were also able to successfully pupate and emerge into adult mosquitoes. Other aspects: such as oviposition site preference, oviposition rate, hatch rate, and immature morphology were also documented. The second species studied, was Culex pipiens Linnaeus, which is known to be a competent vector of West Nile virus (WNV). Cx. pipiens is considered ornithophilic (bird-feeding) but is believed to switch to mammal blood-meals in the late-summer to early-fall in northern regions. I tested a protocol that could be used for determining the host preference of Cx. pipiens in a laboratory setting. The protocol involves creating an environment that limits distractions to feeding and positional bias while giving equal opportunity to choose between two different blood-meals. A PCR assay for testing the blood meal contents of blood-fed mosquitoes was also developed. When tested with bird blood vs. mammal blood, the laboratory colony of Cx. pipiens fed on bird blood ~60% of the time. The number of detections for each blood-meal in a cage raised questions about factors such as bias within the Cx. pipiens colony itself, highlighting a need to take behavioural factors into account when performing laboratory host preference experiments. | en_US |
dc.language.iso | eng | en_US |
dc.publisher | Brock University | en_US |
dc.subject | Mosquito | en_US |
dc.subject | Behaviour | en_US |
dc.subject | Culex | en_US |
dc.subject | Coquillettidia | en_US |
dc.subject | Rearing | en_US |
dc.title | The Behaviour and Ecology of Mosquito Vectors | en_US |
dc.type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation | en_US |
dc.degree.name | M.Sc. Biological Sciences | en_US |
dc.degree.level | Masters | en_US |
dc.contributor.department | Department of Biological Sciences | en_US |
dc.degree.discipline | Faculty of Mathematics and Science | en_US |
refterms.dateFOA | 2024-04-24T12:42:50Z |