Meeting Abstract
P1.30 Jan. 4 Amphibians as natural predators of larval mosquitoes DURANT, Sarah E*; TITUS, Shannon; HOPKINS, William A; Virginia Polytechnic and State Univ; Virginia Polytechnic and State Univ; Virginia Polytechnic and State Univ sdurant@vt.edu
Mosquitoes are abundant in wetlands throughout the world and serve as important vectors of many diseases. A better understanding of the ecology of mosquitoes will pave the way towards understanding factors that influence dynamics of numerous diseases, as well as natural and engineered solutions to controlling these disease vectors. One of the natural factors regulating mosquito distributions and population sizes is predation. For example, bats can consume up to 1,200 flying insects, including mosquitoes, per hour. An exciting but poorly understood source of natural mosquito predation is amphibians, which are prevalent in wetland habitats. We determined the mosquito consumption capability of two common amphibians, the eastern spotted newt (Notophthalmus viridescens) and the mole salamander (Ambystoma talpoideum). We quantified the maximum number of mosquito larvae an individual could consume over a 24 hr period, as well as the rate of mosquito consumption sustained by these two species over a 7 day period. In the 24 hr trial, A. talpoideum consumed 52% more mosquitoes than N. viridescens of similar size. In A. talpoideum, mosquito consumption scaled with body size, with the largest individual (4.4g) capable of ingesting 902 mosquitoes in one day. In our sustained feeding studies, 2.0 and 3.0g individuals of both species consumed an average of 246 � 10 and 322 � 10 mosquitoes a night, respectively. Based on our laboratory findings, it appears that amphibians could have a substantial impact on abundance of mosquito larva, especially considering that densities of N. viridescens and A. talpoideum can reach 40,000 and 300,000 individuals/ha, respectively. Further studies are being conducted to determine feeding preferences of these two species, and how mosquito consumption rates are altered by invertebrate community composition.
