Research Areas

Biology of the Asian Tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus

The Asian Tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, is a highly invasive species and an important vector of arboviruses including dengue, chikungunya and Zika. The success of Ae. albopictus as a global invader is favoured by its ability to readily adapt to new environments, to breed in artificial containers such as abandoned tyres, and its opportunistic and catholic feeding habits.

Climatic change has resulted in higher global temperatures creating favourable conditions for Ae. albopictus establishment in new areas. Climatic change has also resulted in increased aridity in many localities already infested by this species, affecting the availability of breeding sites. This will inevitably increase competition between gravid females for oviposition sites, resulting in increased larval competition.

Compared to more favourable larval conditions, stressful conditions (i.e. high densities and low nutrient levels) result in slower larval development and smaller adults, and may affect adult fecundity, longevity, blood feeding behaviour and flight activity. These factors, in turn, may also influence the ability of these adults to act as vectors of disease. There are two contrasting hypotheses regarding the effect of stressful larval conditions on vectorial capacity of the adults - that is by increasing or decreasing their capacity to disseminate disease. The underlying behavioural, physiological and metabolic mechanisms remain unexplored.

The goal of the project is to assess how and to what extent different larval rearing densities and nutrient levels will influence the metabolism, phenotype, physiology and behaviour of the resulting adults.

Funding