Pest Management Science (2022) 78, 2065-2073

Nasir Mehmood, Ali Hassan, Wei Zhou, Hafiz Muhammad Usman, Hui Ai and Qiuying Huang (2022)
Behavioural alterations in female Aedes aegypti mosquito in response to entomopathogenic fungal infections
Pest Management Science 78 (5), 2065-2073
Abstract:
BACKGROUND
Due to the rapid rise in arboviral disease cases, there is a need for alternative methods of vector control since fast growing insecticides resistance is a matter of great concern. Recent studies have shown the potential of entomopathogenic fungi in controlling mosquito vectors, but behavioural responses of the mosquitoes encountering with entomopathogenic fungi are still unclear.
RESULTS
In this study, behavioural responses induced by the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae (Metschnikoff) Sorokin in adult female Aedes aegypti mosquito were evaluated. The survival of female mosquitoes was significantly reduced after exposure to medium and high concentrations of fungal conidia. A significant increase in frequencies and durations of different self-grooming types was observed in mosquitoes exposed to medium or high concentrations of fungal conidia. Mosquitoes were able to differentiate between active and inactive fungal conidia as application of inactive conidia showed non-significant effect on survival and self-grooming parameters. A concentration-specific reduction in flight locomotor activity of the female mosquitoes was found after fungal treatments. Fungal-exposed mosquitoes showed significantly higher antifungal activity 72 h post-application.
CONCLUSION
These findings provide greater understanding of behavioural responses of the mosquitoes to resist fungal infections and suggest that mosquitoes can remove the lower amounts of fungal conidia through self-grooming behaviour, which they encounter within natural field conditions.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Qiu-Ying Huang

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
biocontrol - natural enemies
Research topic(s) for beneficials or antagonists:
general biology - morphology - evolution

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Aedes aegypti
Metarhizium anisopliae (entomopathogen)	Aedes aegypti