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The location of floral nectar sources by mosquitoes: an advanced bioassay for volatile plant odours and initial studies with Aedes aegypti (L.) (Diptera: Culicidae)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

P. C. Jepson  and
T. P. Healy
P. C. Jepson
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Southampton University, Medical & Biological Sciences Building, Bassett Crescent East, Southampton, SO9 3TU, UK
T. P. Healy
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Southampton University, Medical & Biological Sciences Building, Bassett Crescent East, Southampton, SO9 3TU, UK
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Abstract

The development and testing of a bioassay system to evaluate the potency of floral odours as mediators of long-range floral nectar source location by mosquitoes are described. The bioassay is quantitative and behaviourally discriminating, upwind flying and landing acting as indices of behavioural activity over the 24-h light:dark cycle. In initial tests, the responses of Aedes aegypti (L.) to the flowers and floral odours of ox-eye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare) were investigated. A. aegypti exhibited a biphasic diel cycle of nectar-feeding behaviour and landed on modified flowers that retained either their disc or ray florets. Most significantly, the mosquitoes responded in a similar way to the odour of L. vulgare in the absence of visual stimuli or nutritional cues. They did not respond to solvent extracts of ox-eye daisy flowers.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 78 , Issue 4 , December 1988 , pp. 641 - 650
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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