The Complex Investigation of the Colonization Potential of Aedes Albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) in the South Pannonian Ecoregion

Abstract

Abstract. Aedes albopictus is the potential vector of several pathogens. Recently, the South Pannonian ecoregion has been the border of the east Mediterranean established range of the species. We aimed to determine the current range limiting factors, to predict the potential seasonality and to model the future distribution of the mosquito in the Carpathian Basin. Mosquito trapping was performed in the border region. Larvae were collected from local waters. Based on the new and the previously performed collections, we analysed the limiting climatic factors of the occurrence. The calculation of the full ontogeny was based on previously published experimental results. The analysis of the climate of the successful and non-successful trapping sites showed the complex conditionality of the habitat preference of Aedes albopictus. We confirmed the presence of Phlebotomus neglectus in South-western Hungary and of Aedes albopictus in Zagreb. We found that Aedes albopictus can tolerate the climate of the mountainous regions of the Mediterranean where there are relatively cold winters due to high annual precipitation. Both the climate envelope model results and the gained range limiting factors support the hypothesis that the recent climate of Hungary allows the expansion of the mosquito in the Carpathian Basin.

Unravelling the invasion history of the Asian tiger mosquito in Europe

“…The prior interval was determined as the maximum time since introduction (difference between sampling date and first record) ±30 generations (Supporting Information Table ). We assumed seven generations per year, considering the potential number of weeks of activity of A. albopictus in Central Europe and the Balkans (~5–8 generations) and estimates of the potential number of generations in the Adriatic coast (3–7 generations) (Caminade et al, ; Trájer et al, ). These intervals were adjusted to not allow overlap to avoid incongruences in topologies.…”

“…Total sequence length, calculated as the product of the number of retained loci per population (including monomorphic and polymorphic loci) and the length of each locus (2 × 110 bp), resulted in 3.29 Mb for Albania, 3.21 Mb for North Italy and 3 Mb for Central Italy. For simulations, we assumed seven generations per year (Caminade et al, ; Trájer et al, ). We used a mutation rate of 2.0 × 10 –8 per site per generation based on studies in other Aedes species (Bennett et al, ; Rašić, Filipović, Weeks, & Hoffmann, ) and calibrated time based on introduction date in Albania.…”

Using the intrinsic growth rate of the mosquito population improves spatio-temporal dengue risk estimation

“…The intrinsic growth rate is spatially heterogeneous with minimum value of 0, and maximum of 3.66 (a 38 fold increase, as obtained by exponentiating 3.66). The average intrinsic growth rate for the 12 months period was 0.34, a value showing a slight increase in the population (zero is equivalent to birth rate = death rate)( Trajer et al., 2017 ; Chaves and Moji 2018 ).…”

Expected changes in the length of Anopheles maculipennis (Diptera: Culicidae) larva season and the possibility of the re-emergence of malaria in Central and Eastern Europe and the North Balkan region

“…The exact estimation of the generation number of a mosquito should require the calculation of the temperature-based development time of each ontogeny stages, as in case of the potential annual generation number of Aedes (Stegomyia) albopictus Skuse, 1894 was modeled under different climatic circumstances by Trájer et al (2017). The effect of the precipitation conditions on mosquito vector's abundances is controversial and highly depends on species, climate, month, and geographical location (Landesman et al, 2007), but does not affect substantially the length of the season of mosquitoes in temperate areas, where appropriately small water habitats are available during the entire year -except in very severe droughts.…”