Guest post from Van (member vaneden):

Hi all,

Citizen Scientist Van Eden shares his observations from the Kehana area below:

"The Mosquitoes in Hawaii Project is growing well, with several new members in the last month, and the number of observations now standing at 99! Importantly, these observations are coming in from across the state, and from new members, too.

One interesting variation in the data that I have observed is that Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are suddenly much more common where I live, in Kehena on the "wet" side of the Big Island. When I started catching mosquitoes a few months ago, the first mosquito I caught was an aegypti - very exciting! But I didn't catch another one for months - instead I caught only albopictus, dozens and dozens. And none of the larvae that I reared were aegypti.

But now, I am catching aegypti regularly, suggesting that the population has increased more than the albopictus population.

Why might this be? I suspect that the ten week drought we had here, that started at Christmas has something to do with it. Aedes albopictus eggs can survive in a desiccated state for only about four or five weeks. But aegypti have evolved their eggs to be able to survive for as long as a year! So, when the rains came back in March, all the dried out breeding sites were flooded and the only viable eggs left were aegypti.

I'd like to know if anyone else has seen this.

Van"

Let's follow up on Van's observation by making frequent mosquito observations even where you've already noted them! What we really need is a way of collecting "looked but none seen information" for now that is by comparing the number of the two species, if you find albopictus but not aegypti or vice-versa then we've learned something.

Keep on catching!

Durrell

Posted on 18 de abril de 2016, 09:39 PM by cydno