Adult Longevity and Potential to Transmit Disease Pathogens in the Pitcher-Plant Mosquito, Wyeomyia smithii
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Date
2020
Authors
Quinn, Allie T.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Mosquitoes have been called the deadliest animals on earth. Mosquito-borne pathogens kill millions of humans, livestock, and wildlife each year. Mosquitoes transmit disease through their saliva while taking a blood meal (biting). If there is no bite, there is no spread of disease, period. The pitcher-plant mosquito, Wyeomyia smithii, include blood-feeding southern populations that are fully interfertile with obligate non-biting northern populations. Selection on avid blood feeding in a southern population with both biting and non-biting phenotypes resulted in an increase in blood feeding from 20% to 80% in 19 generations. After eight more generations without access to blood, the incidence of biting reverted to 20%. However, it is not known whether biting occurs only once (one and done) or if females are capable of multiple biting episodes and what the reproductive consequences of multiple blood-fueled ovarian cycles are. I found that while W. smithii is capable of undergoing multiple ovarian cycles, propensity to bite did not change with ovarian cycle, and reproductive success from blood-feeding was actually reduced when compared with reproductive success from a non-biting ovarian cycle. The unexpected reduction in reproductive success was due to a decline in number of eggs per batch and not a decline in embryonic viability. My results lead to the question of whether renewed selection on biting would result not only in an increased propensity to bite but also in an increased reproductive success through multiple blood-feeding ovarian cycles.
Description
25 pages
Keywords
Biology, Wyeomyia Smithii, Mosquito, Vectorial Capacity, Blood-Feeking, Selection, Evolution