Development time and resistance to starvation of mosquito larvae

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Abstract
We evaluated a hypothesis on the existence of two ecological groups of mosquito larvae. One group inhabits bodies of water on the ground, such as ponds, ditches and marshes, and exhibits fast development and a limited ability to prolong development under feeding stress. The other group inhabits small containers such as leaf axils of plants, treeholes and man-made containers, and exhibits slower development and the ability to prolong immature development under feeding stress. We measured development time in larvae of 14 species of mosquitoes and resistance to starvation in 22 species of mosquitoes from Venezuela. They inhabited structures of six species of plants (phytotelmata), one type of artificial container, and two ground-water habitats. The ground-water mosquito larvae (from temporary and permanent pools) exhibited the fastest development and lowest resistance to starvation, as predicted. The phytotelm mosquitoes exhibited the slowest development and greatest resistance to starvation, with some exceptions. Mosquitoes that colonize plant structures late in succession showed a lesser resistance to starvation than those that colonize during early succession. In man-made containers, mosquito species originally from phytotelmata [e.g. Aedes aegypti (L.)] showed greater resistance to starvation than did mosquito species originally from ground-water habitats (e.g. Culex quinquefasciatus Say), however development times for the two groups were similar. Rather than two discrete groups of mosquitoes, there is a diversity of traits related to selective pressures operating in the diverse aquatic habitats of the mosquito larvae.