Lc. Harrington et al., Analysis of survival of young and old Aedes aegypti (Diptera : Culicidae) from Puerto Rico and Thailand, J MED ENT, 38(4), 2001, pp. 537-547
It generally is assumed that the daily probability of survival of wild adul
t mosquitoes is independent of age. To test this assumption we conducted ma
rk-release-recapture studies in Puerto Rico and Thailand to determine if es
timated. daily survival rates between two different age cohorts of the deng
ue vector Aedes aeglipti (L.) were the same. Survivorship was estimated wit
h nonlinear regression analysis using bootstrapping to obtain estimates of
errors. Initial recapture success of the younger cohort was greater than th
e older cohort at both locations. Our analysis revealed a significantly gre
ater survival rate for the younger cohort of females in Puerto Rico, and no
significant differences between age cohorts in Thailand. For comparison, a
traditional approach for analyzing these type of data, linear regression o
f log -transformed captures over time (exponential model), was used to calc
ulate the probability of daily survival based on slopes of linear regressio
n lines for recaptured mosquitoes. With this method, the estimated daily su
rvival rate of older females (13-33 d old) was significantly greater than s
urvival of younger ones (3-13 d old) in Puerto Rico and Thailand. In additi
on, short-range movement of mosquitoes was observed in Puerto Rico; maximum
dispersal distance detected was 79 m. Survival rates of adult Ae. aegypti
may be age dependent and nonlinear regression analysis is a sensitive appro
ach for comparing patterns of mosquito survival based on mark, single relea
se, multiple recapture data.