Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-24hb2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T12:37:15.570Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Field observations on competitive displacement, at the preimaginal stage, of Culex quinquefasciatus Say by Culex cinereus Theobald (Diptera: Culicidae) at the Kenya Coast

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

R. Subra
Affiliation:
International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Coastal Field Station, P.O. Box 80804, Mombasa, Kenya
R. D. Dransfield
Affiliation:
International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Coastal Field Station, P.O. Box 80804, Mombasa, Kenya

Abstract

In certain areas of the Kenya coast, Culex quinquefasciatus Say is unable to maintain itself in breeding sites (flooded pit latrines) which it has to share with C. cinereus Theo. The pattern of settlement of the two species and the replacement of C. quinquefasciatus by C. cinereus were studied from May to November 1980 by monitoring newly emerged males as they departed from two breeding sites located in a small village near Mombasa. C. quinquefasciatus was the first species to be recorded from both sites, soon after they were flooded by the early rains. C. cinereus came later and did not increase markedly until after the late rains. The pattern of replacement of C. quinquefasciatus by C. cinereus was similar in the two breeding sites; the former species was unable to maintain itself once C. cinereus started to increase. Studies in another village showed that, after displacement, egg laying by C. quinquefasciatus continued but at a much reduced level. It is suggested that this is an example of competition-mediated succession occurring annually, with C. quinquefasciatus being better adapted to exploit rapidly the newly flooded sites but unable to sustain later competition from C. cinereus.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Birch, L. C. (1957). The meanings of competition.—Am. Nat. 91, 518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Meillon, B., Sebastian, A. & Khan, Z. H. (1967). Exodus from a breeding place and the time of emergence from the pupa of Culex pipiens fatigans.—Bull. Wld Hlth Org. 36, 163167.Google Scholar
Detinova, T. S. (1962). Age-grouping methods in Diptera of medical importance with special reference to some vectors of malaria.—Monograph Ser. W.H.O. no. 47, 216 pp.Google Scholar
Gillies, M. T. (1962). Interspecific competition in mosquitoes-has it any bearing on biological control?Proc. XI Int. Congr. Ent. 2, 502503.Google Scholar
Gillies, M. T. & Smith, A. (1960). The effect of a residual house-spraying campaign in East Africa on species balance in the Anopheles funestus group. The replacement of A. funestus Giles by A. rivulorum Leeson.—Bull. ent. Res. 51, 243252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilotra, S. K., Rozeboom, L. E. & Bhatiacharya, N. C. (1967). Observations on possible competitive displacement between populations of Aedes aegypti Linnaeus and Aedes albopictus Skuse in Calcutta.—Bull. Wld Hlth Org. 37, 437446.Google Scholar
Ikeshoji, T. & Mulla, M. S. (1970). Overcrowding factors of mosquito larvae.—J. econ. Ent. 63, 9096.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MacArthur, R. H. & Wilson, E. O. (1967). The theory of island biogeography.—Princeton, University Press.Google Scholar
Self, L. S. & Sebastian, A. (1971). A high incidence of green coloration in newly-emerged adult populations of Culex pipiens fatigans in Rangoon, Burma.—J. med. Entomol. 8, 391393.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Service, M. W. (1966). The replacement of Culex nebulosus Theo. by Culex pipiens fatigans Wied. (Diptera, Culicidae) in towns in Nigeria.—Bull. ent. Res. 56, 407415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Service, M. W. (1976). Mosquito ecology. Field sampling methods.—583 pp. London, Applied Science.Google Scholar
Subra, R. (1982). The distribution and frequency of Culex pipiens quinquefasciaties Say 1823 (Diptera, Culicidae) breeding places on the Kenya coast in relation to human sociological factors.—J. trop. Med. Hyg. 85, 5761.Google ScholarPubMed
Subra, R., Service, M. W. & Mosha, F. W. (1984). The effect of domestic detergents on the population dynamics of the immature stages of two competitor mosquitoes, Culex cinereus Theobald and Culex quinquefasciatus Say (Diptera, Culicidae) in Kenya.—Acta trop. 41,6975.Google ScholarPubMed