Help Argon Steel and Dennis LaPointe trap mosquitoes on the Big Island!

Dear Mosquito in Hawai'i participants,

Following up on my last post, I have some great news! I am happy to introduce two more mosquito expert collaborators who could use your help!

First is Dr. Dennis LaPointe, a research ecologist from the U.S. Geological Survey Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. Dennis is a highly experienced vector ecologist who has worked with Carter Atkinson and others on the S. House Mosquito (Culex quinquefasciatus) that transmits avian malaria in Hawai'i. Dennis has new funding to do quantitative sampling of Aedes mosquitoes on the leeward Big Island.

In order to facilitate this intensive fieldwork, Dennis has hired Dr. Argon Steel (iNaturalist profile @argonsteel), who recently received his PhD from the University of Hawai'i-Kaka’ako under the supervision of Dr. Shannon Bennett. Argon has experience studying dengue virus and the mosquitoes that transmit dengue virus including lots of experience in SE Asia.

Argon and Dennis are looking for locations to conduct ovitrapping across leeward Big Island to answer the question of how Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus respond to altitude, rainfall and other factors that vary across the area. Argon will seek to deploy traps at four altitudes in six transects from S. Point all the way to Kawaihae.

Their basic study can build upon the great set of distributional records you have collected and the range maps derived from our preliminary work (Kapan et al. 2016, see link below). Dennis and Argon need hosted study sites: locations that Argon can access where he can place two (or more) ovitraps and return to check the traps on a weekly basis for 6-12 months.

In addition to potentially providing locations to host the traps, it would be great if we could put out the word to help Argon seek more hosted sites for the study. In addition to finding contacts of your own, perhaps one of you can introduce Argon to the Dengue / Zika awareness group.

Dennis and Argon’s work will add quantitative regular sampling to the mosquito knowledge that you have helped build. In exchange for this work Argon and Dennis will work with volunteer hosts to share what they are finding and help build the iNaturalist mosquitoes in Hawai'i database in the process. This will be a great way to return relevant information back to the community as the study progresses.

To volunteer to host traps or suggest others to get in touch with send Argon an e-mail to @hawaii.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">argon@hawaii.edu or message him on iNaturalist.

Thanks for helping build our knowledge of the distribution and abundance of mosquitoes in Hawai'i!

All the best,

Durrell (@cydno)

Durrell D. Kapan, Ph.D.
Senior Research Fellow
Institute for Biodiversity Science and Sustainability
California Academy of Sciences

Kapan, D. D., Lindberg, K., Henderson, J., & Winchester, J. C. (2016). The distribution of Aedes aegypti and albopictus in Hawaii. Proceedings and Papers of the Mosquito and Vector Control Association of California, 84, 100–103. (search PDF for Kapan).

Posted on 27 de abril de 2018, 07:55 PM by cydno cydno

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