Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Nov 6;12(1):524.
doi: 10.1186/s13071-019-3772-5.

First report of the influence of temperature on the bionomics and population dynamics of Aedes koreicus, a new invasive alien species in Europe

Giovanni Marini  1   2 , Daniele Arnoldi  3 , Frederic Baldacchino  3   4 , Gioia Capelli  5 , Giorgio Guzzetta  6   7 , Stefano Merler  6   7 , Fabrizio Montarsi  5 , Annapaola Rizzoli  3 , Roberto Rosà  3   6   8
Affiliations

First report of the influence of temperature on the bionomics and population dynamics of Aedes koreicus, a new invasive alien species in Europe

Giovanni Marini et al. Parasit Vectors. .

Abstract

Background: Aedes koreicus was detected in northern Italy for the first time in 2011, and it is now well established in several areas as a new invasive mosquito species. Data regarding the influence of temperature on mosquito survival and development are not available yet for this species.

Methods: We experimentally investigated the influence of different constant rearing temperatures (between 4 and 33 °C) on the survival rates and developmental times of different life stages of Ae. koreicus under laboratory conditions. The resulting data were subsequently used to inform a mathematical model reproducing the Ae. koreicus life-cycle calibrated to counts of adult females captured in the field in the autonomous province of Trento (northern Italy) between 2016 and 2018.

Results: We found that temperatures above 28 °C are not optimal for the survival of pupae and adults, whereas temperate conditions of 23-28 °C seem to be very favorable, explaining the recent success of Ae. koreicus at establishing into new specific areas. Our results indicate that Ae. koreicus is less adapted to local climatic conditions compared to Ae. albopictus, another invasive species which has been invading the area for the last three decades. Warmer seasons, which are more likely to occur in the future because of climate change, might extend the breeding time and therefore increase the abundance of Ae. koreicus in the study region.

Conclusions: Our findings provide, to our knowledge, the first evidence on how temperature influences the bionomics and dynamics of Ae. koreicus and highlight the need for further studies on the phenology of this species in temperate areas of Europe.

Keywords: Invasive species; Mathematical model; Mosquito bionomics; Mosquito dynamics; Vector abundance.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Study area. Key: red dots, trap locations; orange triangles, weather stations. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors [40]
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Temperature-dependent functions. Dots represent the experiments observations; shaded area represents 95% CI of predicted values
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Model fit for each trapping site A, B, C, D (from first to last row) from 2016 to 2018 (from first to last column). Dots: recorded captures; boxplots (median, quartiles and 95% quantiles): predicted captures
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Effect of temperature on Aedes koreicus. Predicted average densities (number of adult females per hectare) for 10 different scenarios obtained varying daily temperature T from −2.5 °C (dark blue) to 2.5 °C (dark red) with a step of 0.5 °C for each trapping site A, B, C, D (from first to last row) and year (from first to last column). Black lines represent the estimated average abundance with no temperature perturbations
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Aedes albopictus/Ae. koreicus ratio. Ratio between the average predicted adult Ae. albopictus and Ae. koreicus abundances for each trapping site A, B, C, D for each year under study
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Medlock JM, Hansford KM, Schaffner F, Versteirt V, Hendrickx G, Zeller H, et al. A review of the invasive mosquitoes in Europe: ecology, public health risks, and control options. Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis. 2012;12:435–447. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sabatini A, Raineri V, Trovato G, Coluzzi M. Aedes albopictus in Italy and possible diffusion of the species into the Mediterranean area. Parassitologia. 1990;32:301–304. - PubMed
    1. Versteirt V, Pecor JE, Fonseca DM, Coosemans M, Bortel WV. Confirmation of Aedes koreicus (Diptera: Culicidae) in Belgium and description of morphological differences between Korean and Belgian specimens validated by molecular identification. Zootaxa. 2012;3191:21–32.
    1. Capelli G, Drago A, Martini S, Montarsi F, Soppelsa M, Delai N, et al. First report in Italy of the exotic mosquito species Aedes (Finlaya) koreicus, a potential vector of arboviruses and filariae. Parasit Vectors. 2011;4:188. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Baldacchino F, Montarsi F, Arnoldi D, Barategui C, Ferro Milone N, Da Rold G, et al. A 2-yr mosquito survey focusing on Aedes koreicus (Diptera: Culicidae) in northern Italy and implications for adult trapping. J Med Entomol. 2017;54:622–630. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources