A meta-analysis reveals that dragonflies and damselflies can provide effective biological control of mosquitoes

Abstract

Dragonfly/damselfly naiads have the potential to control mosquitoes, and indirectly the diseases they carry, due to their extensive predation on mosquito larvae. Experimental studies have measured the effectiveness of individual dragonfly/damselfly naiads in controlling mosquitoes by introducing them to mosquito larvae and counting the number of larvae eaten in a given time period (i.e. predation success). Without a quantitative synthesis, however, such individual measures are unable to provide a generalized estimation about the effectiveness of dragonflies/damselflies as biological mosquito control agents. To achieve this, we assembled a database containing 485 effect sizes across 31 studies on predation successes of 47 species of commonly found dragonfly/damselfly naiads on nine species of mosquito larvae belonging to Aedes, Anopheles and Culex. These studies covered 14 countries across Asia, Africa and South and North America, where mosquitoes are the vectors of Chikungunya, Dengue, Japanese encephalitis, Lymphatic filariasis, Malaria, Rift Valley fever, West Nile fever, Yellow fever and Zika. Using this database, we conducted a meta-analysis to estimate the average predation success per day by a single individual dragonfly/damselfly naiad on these mosquito larvae as a generalized measure of the effectiveness of dragonflies/damselflies for mosquito control. We also built an interaction network for predator-dragonflies/damselflies and prey-mosquitoes and the diseases they vector to understand the functioning of this important predator-prey network. Our results showed that mosquito larvae were significantly reduced through predation by dragonfly/damselfly naiads. Within experimental containers, a single individual dragonfly/damselfly naiad can eat on average 40 (95% confidence intervals [CIs] = 20, 60) mosquito larvae per day, equivalent to a reduction of the mosquito larval population by 45% (95% CIs = 30%, 59%) per day. The average predation success did not significantly vary among Aedes, Anopheles and Culex mosquitoes or among the four (I-IV) mosquito larval stages. These results provide strong evidence that dragonflies/damselflies can be effective biological control agents of mosquitoes, and environmental planning to promote them could lower the risk of spreading mosquito-borne diseases in an environmentally friendly and cost-effective manner.

Keywords: Odonata; aquatic predators; ecosystem services; insects; mosquito-borne diseases; nature-based solutions; urban blue-green spaces; vector control.