Intensity and Site of Plagiorchis elegans (Trematoda: Plagiorchiidae) Infections in Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) Larvae Affect the Attractiveness of Their Waters to Ovipositing, Conspecific Females

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Abstract
A series of biological assays was conducted in the laboratory to assess the oviposition responses of Aedes aegypti (L.) to waters that had harbored conspecific larvae parasitized with the entomopathogenic digenean Plagiorchis elegans (Rudolphi). Infections were of various intensities and locations within the bodies of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th instars. Regardless of instar and location of infection, repellency of the waters to ovipositing females increased with the intensity of infections of the larvae. Similarly, waters derived from larvae with infections of the head and thorax tended to be more repellent than waters from larvae with abdominal infections, regardless of instar and intensity of infection. Oviposition repellency was greatest in response to waters from 2nd and 4th instars; the mean numbers of eggs laid on these waters was ≍l/2 that on distilled water controls. These data suggest that sublethal infections of A. aegypti larvae with P. elegans may reduce the recruitment of 1st instars into the preimago population.

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