Sampling the Egg Population

Abstract

Oviposition strategies of mosquitoes can be classified into four broad categories. Species of Anopheles, Toxorhynchites, Sabethes and Wyeomyia hover above the water surface and deposit eggs singly onto the water surface, often without ever coming into physical contact with the water. Species of Culex, Coquillettidia and Culiseta lay egg-rafts onto the water surface. Mansonia species fix their eggs to the surface of vegetation, often below the water surface. Aedes, Ochlerotatus and Psorophora species lay eggs singly, not in water, but on substrates that are subject to intermittent flooding, such as leaf litter, soil at the edges of ponds, on the walls of man-made containers, or on the surfaces of plants, tree-holes and bamboo. Mosquito eggs are found in many different habitats, includeing small pools, large marshes, rock pools, tree-holes, plant axils, flower bracts, fallen leaves, fruit husks, empty snail shells, bromeliads and a variety of man-made containers.