West Nile virus (WNV), a Flavivirus with an avian primary host, is already widespread in Europe and might also pose an infection risk to Germany, should competent mosquito vectors be present. Therefore, we analysed the ability of WNV to infect German Culex mosquitoes with special emphasis on field collected specimens of Culex torrentium and Culex pipiens biotype pipiens. We collected egg rafts ...

Haemosporidians, a group of vector-borne parasites that include Plasmodium, infect vertebrates including birds. Although mosquitoes are crucial elements in the transmission of avian malaria parasites, little is known of their ecology as vectors. We examined the presence of Plasmodium and Haemoproteus lineages in five mosquito species belonging to the genera Culex and Ochlerotatus to test for th...

Landfill monitoring is necessary to avoid adverse environmental impacts. Toxicity tests are now incorporated into landfill hazard assessment. Toxicity of leachate in a lagoon draining the AbaEku landfill, Ibadan, Nigeria was investigated using bioassays. 96hr bioassays were carried out using arthropods (Insecta larvae of Chironomus sp.; Culex pipiens); amphibians (tadpoles of Bufo regularis); a...

Members of the Culex pipiens Linn. complex in the eastern, southern, and central United States are the primary vectors of St. Louis encephalitis virus. Although species and subspecies in the complex can be identified as 4th-instar larvae and by characters on the male genitalia, adult females cannot be identified accurately. In this study a ribosomal DNA (rDNA) segment that includes the internal...

Water accumulating in the axils of bromeliads provides habitat for numerous invertebrates, frequently among them, immature mosquitoes. To evaluate mosquito richness in bromeliads and the relationship between mosquito presence and biotic and abiotic variables, we performed a study in the Parque Nacional do Itatiaia, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Mosquitoes of genus Culex were the most abundant and var...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES An efficient larvivorous fish must show a predilection for mosquito larvae in the presence of alternative preys. This study compares the feeding capacity and preference of Aphyosemion gularis exposed to different kinds of aquatic macroinvertebrates. METHODS Various prey organisms such as Anopheles larvae and pupae, Culex larvae, chironomid larvae and ostracods were eit...

Infectious diseases increasingly play a role in the decline of wildlife populations. Vector-borne diseases, in particular, have been implicated in mass mortality events and localized population declines are threatening some species with extinction. Transmission patterns for vector-borne diseases are influenced by the spatial distribution of vectors and are therefore not uniform across the lands...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Taxonomic status of Culex pipiens is well-known as many years with such a wide variety of morphological and biological characteristics. These changes have been the subject of extensive investigation by many researchers. There are a little information about the morphology and molecular data of Cx. pipiens complex in Iran. The taxonomic status of the complex is very import...

The purpose of this study was for the first time to establish phylogenetic hypotheses among Culex (Culex) species from Argentina, and to evaluate the relationships of this subgenus with subgenera Phenacomyia and Phytotelmatomyia. We employed maximum parsimony to analyse morphological characters derived from the morphology of the adult, pupal and larval stages. More than 30 figures, including ph...

The role of lactic acid was evaluated for attraction of Culex nigripalpus, Culex quinquefasciatus, Culex tarsalis, and Aedes aegypti in the laboratory using a dual-port olfactometer. When lactic acid was combined with chicken odor, attraction was increased for Cx. quinquefasciatus compared to chicken odor alone but not for Cx. nigripalpus, Cx. tarsalis, and Ae. aegypti. Lactic acid combined wit...