RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WING LENGTH AND DRY-WEIGHT OF MOSQUITOS

The relationship between the wing length and dry weight of field-colle cted and laboratory-reared mosquitoes was analyzed using regression an alysis. The species examined were Aedes albopictus, Aedes aegypti, Aed es triseriatus, Aedes vexans, Culex pipiens, and Culex restuans. Strai n differences in both wing length and weight were noted for Ae. albopi ctus. Wing length was not a cube root function of weight. The variabil ity of wing length determined the amount of the variation attributable to regression (r2) accounted for by the given equation for each speci es. No single transformation consistently resulted in a regression wit h the best fit. In the species and strains of female mosquitoes that w ere examined, wing length was less variable than weight. Consequently, small changes in wing length corresponded to proportionately greater changes in weight.