AEDES-AEGYPTI (DIPTERA, CULICIDAE) MOVEMENT INFLUENCED BY AVAILABILITY OF OVIPOSITION SITES

Marked Aedes aegypti (L.) (5-6 d old) were released inside 2 groups of 5 houses (100 females per house) in a residential community in Florid a, PR, to compare behavior of gravid females at sites where ovipositio n containers were absent to sites where containers were abundant (i.e. , 2 tires and 10 ovipots were added to each yard). Two sequential rele ases were made so that both groups of houses were evaluated with ovipo sition containers removed and added. Mosquitoes resting inside the 10 release houses plus 20 additional neighboring houses were collected wi th backpack aspirators for 4 consecutive days, beginning 2 d after rel ease. Because 172 of the 185 recaptured females (93%) were collected i n the same houses in which they had been released, dispersal patterns were not directly comparable. However, the recapture rate in houses wi th containers added (13%) was significantly higher (P < 0.0001) than i n houses with containers removed (6%). No difference was observed in t he mean number of potential oviposition containers among the nonreleas e houses at the 2 sites (3.9 versus 3.8 aquatic containers per house i n the prerelease survey). Our results are consistent with the hypothes is that availability of oviposition sites is inversely correlated with the potential for female Ac. aegypti to disperse. These results have important implications because campaigns to reduce Ae. aegypti larval sites during dengue epidemics could have the undesirable effect of ind ucing the dispersal of infected adult female mosquitoes.