Chaoborus americanus larvae were used in laboratory experiments to assess their efficiency at decreasing mosquito larval populations. Third and fourth instar Chaoborus americanus larvae were independently fed assemblages of single prey species to test hunger and several prey species to test preference. Prey species included Daphnia and the four Aedes aegypti larval instars. The results show that Chaoborus americanus larvae will choose early instar mosquito larvae over Daphnia, however, this preference decreases as the mosquito larvae become older. Third instar Chaoborus americanus larvae will choose first instar mosquito larvae over Daphnia 76% of the time, whereas they will select third instar mosquito larvae only 30% of the time. Fourth instar Chaoborus americanus larvae will choose first instar mosquito larvae 94% of the time, and select fourth instar mosquito larvae only 3% of the time. Crowding also has an effect on feeding times; individual Chaoborus larvae take more time to ingest their prey items than do individuals within a group. Chaoborus americanus larvae are good biological control agents within a laboratory setting.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.33376 |
| Date | January 2000 |
| Creators | Autran, Lyris. |
| Contributors | Lewis, David James (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Natural Resource Sciences.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001781699, proquestno: MQ70684, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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