A mark-release-recapture experiment with Culex tritaeniorhynchus Giles

Abstract
A mark-release-recapture experiment with the progeny of wild collected Culex tritaeniorhynchus was conducted at the village of Khokhar near Lahore, Pakistan, during June–July 1976, the onset of the monsoon. Recapture rates for each of three releases ranged from a low of 0·19% for males to a high of 0·58% for females. Male and female recaptures were well correlated with the dispersion patterns of the unmarked adults which suggested that the released adults selected similar resting habitats as the wild population. The direction of dispersal appeared random and marked, unfed females were captured biting buffaloes at the most distant collection site, 1·22 km from the release point. The initial gonotrophic cycle of the released females was completed six to eight days after emergence. The last marked female and male specimens were collected 13 and 15 days after the day of release, respectively. Released virgin females were all inseminated by the second night. The modified Lincoln index and Jackson's positive method (based on an eight-day sampling sequence) provided relatively similar estimates of population size which were considered realistic. Jackson's negative method, based on a three-day recapture chain, provided a substantial underestimate of survivorship and thus an underestimate of population size.
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