This project attempts to define the processes that determine the distribution and abundance of the commonest mosquito species occupying container habitats such as treeholes and discarded tires. Both long-term census data (a treehole census-with-replacement program has proceeded at FMEL without interruption since 1978) and manipulative field and laboratory experiments are employed to describe the effects of such variables as seasonality, weather, predation by indigenous Toxorhynchites and competition between resident species and invasive Aedes. A collaboration with researchers at the University of California, Davis and Dartmouth University is using the long-term census records to evaluate whether the mosquito fauna of these treeholes are organized as metacommunities.

Toxorhynchites rutilus

Contact: Phil Lounibos