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Autumn southward ‘return’ migration of the mosquito Culex tritaeniorhynchus in China
Author(s) -
JIGUANG MING,
HUA JIN,
RILEY J. R.,
REYNOLDS D. R.,
SMITH A. D.,
RENLAI WANG,
JIYI CHENG,
XIANIAN CHENG
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
medical and veterinary entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.028
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1365-2915
pISSN - 0269-283X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2915.1993.tb00699.x
Subject(s) - culex tritaeniorhynchus , biology , vector (molecular biology) , ecology , japanese encephalitis , veterinary medicine , virus , virology , encephalitis , medicine , biochemistry , gene , recombinant dna
. Direct evidence for a southward ‘return’ migration in autumn of the mosquito Culex tritaeniorhynchus in China was obtained by aerial sampling with a net suspended from a balloon. In a preliminary study between 2 and 20 September 1990 at Jiangpu, near Nanjing, in Jiangsu Province, 11 females and 4 males of this species were taken at heights of 150–250 m. During 17–26 October 1991 at Dongxiang in northern Jiangxi Province, 44 mosquitoes (8 males, 36 females) were caught in the aerial net at heights of 80–380m in northeasterly winds (E‐NNW). Most of the specimens were flying within the subsiding air‐mass behind a cold front. Cx tritaeniorhynchus was the only species identified (31 females) among the mosquitoes from Dongxiang. Of 24 females dissected, 17 had N stage ovaries — interpreted as diapause, five had stage I ovaries, one had stage II ovaries, and one was gravid (stage V), but none was freshly bloodfed. Cx tritaeniorhynchus is the main vector of Japanese viral encephalitis in China, and it is possible that the virus is reintroduced to northern temperate areas in spring by northward migration of infected Cx tritaeniorhynchus females.