CULEX ANNULIROSTRIS BREEDING SITES IN URBAN AREAS - USING REMOTE-SENSING AND DIGITAL IMAGE-ANALYSIS TO DEVELOP A RAPID PREDICTOR OF POTENTIAL BREEDING AREAS

A rapid technique is being developed and assessed to identify urban br eeding sites of Culex annulirostris, which is a vector of an arbovirus (Ross River virus). Field survey and laboratory identification were u sed to identify breeding sites for the species. Ephemeral sites became the focus of the research and other mosquito species were recorded. T he sites were located on digitized images of 1:30,000 color aerial pho tographs. Training sites were used to create ''themes'' for the main e phemeral breeding sites and the MicroBRIAN image processing package wa s used to map the themes to each image. The accuracy and completeness of identification were evaluated with reference to the original field site identification and by further field checks. The accuracy was 87% and the completeness was 75%.