The importance of density dependence in juvenile mosquito development and survival: A model-based investigation

Walker, Melody; Michael, Robert; Childs, Lauren M.

doi:10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2020.109357

Cited by 7 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…In previous work, we showed that development time is affected by density [55], which was also noted by others [54]. To model density-dependent development time, we incorporate the function f (N ), which is the proportion of individuals that develop to the next life stage.…”

Section: Development Timementioning

confidence: 75%

“…Individuals move through successive larval stages (LX, where X denotes the instar: 1, 2, 3, or 4). The proportion of juvenile mosquitoes that develops each day is governed by the function f (N ), where N is the total number of larvae at time t. We assume that development of juvenile mosquitoes is density-dependent [54,55], and let the density in the model equal the current larval population (N ). See details on f (N ) in section 2.2.2.…”

Section: Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To model density-dependent development time, we incorporate the function f (N ), which is the proportion of individuals that develop to the next life stage. For f (N ), we use the Maynard-Smith-Slatkin density function, which is the best fit formulation from [55], and is given by…”

Section: Development Timementioning

confidence: 99%

“…where k is the maximum development rate, N is the total current larvae, and a and b scale the importance of density. We use the parameter choice a = 0.0043 and b = 1.61 found in previous work [55]. Here, we employ different f (N ) for males and females and fit two different values for the maximum development proportion, k: one for males, denoted k m , and the other for females, denoted k f .…”

Section: Development Timementioning

confidence: 99%

“…al. [55], both parameters a and b in the density dependent function were fitted to a different data set with Aedes aegypti. We used the same values in this study for the model selection for the standard choices (a = 0.0043, b = 1.61), but vary both a and b univariately here.…”

Section: Density Dependent Parameters a Bmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Modeling the effects of Aedes aegypti’s larval environment on adult body mass at emergence

Walker

Chandrasegaran

Vinauger

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Mosquitoes vector harmful pathogens that infect millions of people every year, and developing approaches to effectively control mosquitoes is a topic of great interest. However, the success of many control measures is highly dependent upon ecological, physiological, and life history traits of the mosquito species. The behavior of mosquitoes and their potential to vector pathogens can also be impacted by these traits. One trait of interest is mosquito body mass, which depends upon many factors associated with the environment in which juvenile mosquitoes develop. Our experiments examined the impact of larval density on the body mass of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which are important vectors of dengue, Zika, yellow fever, and other pathogens. To investigate the interactions between the larval environment and mosquito body mass, we built a discrete time mathematical model that incorporates body mass, larval density, and food availability and fit the model to our experimental data. We considered three categories of model complexity informed by data, and selected the best model within each category using Akaike's Information Criterion. We found that the larval environment is an important determinant of the body mass of mosquitoes upon emergence. Furthermore, we found that larval density has greater impact on body mass of adults at emergence than on development time, and that inclusion of density dependence in the survival of female aquatic stages in models is important. We discuss the implications of our results for the control of Aedes mosquitoes and on their potential to spread disease.

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Section: Development Timementioning

confidence: 75%

Section: Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Development Timementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Development Timementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Density Dependent Parameters a Bmentioning

confidence: 99%

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