Longitudinal studies of Aedes aegypti (Diptera : Culicidae) in Thailand and Puerto Rico: Population dynamics

Aspiration collections of adult Aedes aegypti (L.) were made weekly from in side and outside of houses for 3 yr in a rural Thai village (n = 9,637 fema les and n = 11,988 males) and for 2 yr in a residential section of San Juan , Puerto Rico (n = 5,941 females and n = 6,739 males). In Thailand, tempera ture and rainfall fell into distinct seasonal categories, but only temperat ure was correlated with fluctuations in female abundance. Average weekly te mperature 6 wk before mosquitoes were collected and minimum weekly temperat ure during the week of collection provided the highest correlations with fe male abundance. Accounting for annual variation significantly improved Thai models of temperature and mosquito abundance. In Puerto Rico, temperature, but not rainfall, could be categorized into seasonal patterns. Neither was correlated with changes in female abundance. At both sites the vast majori ty of females were collected inside houses and most contained a blood meal. Most teneral females were collected outside. Wing length-an indicator of f emale size-and parity, egg development or engorgement status were not corre lated, indicating that feeding success and survival were not influenced by female size. At both sites, females fed almost exclusively on human hosts ( greater than or equal to 96%), a pattern that did not change seasonally. In Puerto Rico more nonhuman blood meals were detected in mosquitoes collecte d outside than inside houses; no such difference was detected in Thailand. Gut contents of dissected females indicated that females in the Thai popula tion had a younger age distribution and fed more frequently on blood than d id Ae. aegypti in Puerto Rico. Our results indicated that aspects of this s pecies' biology can vary significantly from one location to another and 1 y r to the next.