Hi all,
Big Island citizen scientist and iNatter Van Eden gave a great talk on mosquitoes in Hawai'i (including his pitch for joining this project!) at The Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii in the Hawaii Ocean Science and Technology Park, Kailua-Kona Hawaii.
The first half of his talk features how to catch & kill mosquitoes.
The second half of his talk features our Mosquitoes in Hawai'i project.
Way to go Van!
Durrell
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
Hi all,
On April 20th Van Eden collected the 100th observation for this project. Way to go Van!
This number is a milestone for these tricky insects that can be so annoying yet hard to catch, identify and document in large numbers.
Meanwhile working over the Earth Day weekend, minermurray and Van have upped the total to 105 observations!
I want to extend a thanks to everyone involved in the project, with your efforts the data on mosquitoes on the Big Island and all over the state have greatly expanded.
Keep on catching!
Durrell
