Appropriate Larval Food Quality and Quantity for Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae)

ABSTRACT The Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus (Skuse,1894) is a globally invasive prominent vector of viral and parasitic pathogens. To soundly guide insecticide use in control programs it is crucial to use standardized test systems under rigorously controlled environmental conditions that allow for comparisons across laboratories. An acute standard test procedure (24 h) for insecticide resistance monitoring of mosquitoes has been published by the World Health Organization in 1998, but a standardized chronic test to monitor sublethal insecticide effects on the life cycle of mosquitoes does not yet exist. As a first step toward a standardized chronic bioassay (half-life-cycle-test), the exclusion of qualitative and quantitative food effects by means of standardized, optimal larval feeding would greatly facilitate inter-laboratory comparisons. Against this background we evaluated food qualities and quantities for the aquatic part of the A. albopictus life cycle under different thermal conditions. Five ...