Dispersal Behavior and Vector Potential of Aedes Cantator (Diptera: Culicidae) in Southern Maryland

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Abstract
Three Aedes cantator broods were monitored in the vicinity of a salt marsh during May–July 1978. Landing rates and parous rates were estimated semiweeldy at 4 sites extending 2 km inland from the marsh-upland ecotone. Larval surveys and light-trap data were also used to detect brood emergences. Data indicate that females disperse inland at least 2 km and return to the marsh for oviposition. Parous females return inland for additional blood feeding and no inhibition of dispersal tendency was detected in parous individuals. Parous mosquitoes were present at all sampling sites from 22 May–5 July and no significant difference in parous rates was found at any of the study locations. These data suggest that Ae. cantator could act as a biological vector both near the marsh and at inland locations. Initial dispersal behavior appears to be similar to that of Aedes sollicitans in that flight is appetential and gradual in nature; however, it differs from true migration exhibited by Aedes taeniorhynchus.