Abai, MR

6th International Congress of DipterologyComparative responses of mosquito vectors of West Nilevirus to light traps augmented with chemical attractant andto human hostsBarnard, D., S. Allan, U. Bernier, G. Clark, D. Kline & K. LinthicumCenter for Medical, Agricultural, and Veterinary Entomology, U.S. Department ofAgriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Gainesville, Florida 32608, U.S.A.Scientists in the USA seek to develop Global Information Technology(GIS, GPS, remote sensing)-based systems that can be used to deploysentinel traps for mosquito vectors and for the implementation andevaluation of mosquito control. Achieving this objective requires thedevelopment of methods for unbiased estimation of adult mosquito density.Unbiased estimators will enable the identification and analysis of naturalmosquito dispersion parameters and the development of GIT-based modelsfor forecasting mosquito activity and distribution. In North America, theCDC light trap (augmented with attractant CO 2 gas) is used to determinethe species composition and abundance of vector populations, as well asthe geographic distribution and virus infection rate in these populations.But we do not know the relationship between mosquito capture rates byCDC traps and the numbers of mosquitoes attacking the human population.In the present study, the landing rates (LR) of Anopheles quadrimaculatus,Culex nigripalpus, Cx. quinquefasciatus, Ochlerotatus triseriatus andAedes albopictus on human hosts were compared with capture rates of thesame species by CDC traps (with CO 2 ). We found significant associations(P ≤0.05) among the day-to-day responses to LR and CDC by Anquadrimaculatus and Cx. quinquefasciatus, and among the hour-to-hour(over 24 hours) responses of all species except Oc. triseriatus. CDC trapstypically underestimate LR by 40-125%, depending on the mosquitospecies and time of day, but improved precision (R 2 =0.61-0.70) in theseestimates is achieved by the identification/removal of outlier responses andthe fit of log-transformed LR data for each species to linear or polynomialmodels. Temporal variations in the capture rate of mosquitoes by LR andCDC suggest that each method samples separate components of the14