Journal
JOURNAL OF INSECT PHYSIOLOGY
Volume 58, Issue 7, Pages 1000-1006Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.jinsphys.2012.05.004
Keywords
Aedes (Stegomyia) aegypti; Oviposition site selection; Polarization vision; Constrained polarotaxis; Water detection; Infochemicals
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Funding
- German Alexander von Humboldt Foundation [3.3-UNG/1127933STP]
- Hungarian Science Foundation [OTKA K-68462]
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Aquatic and water-associated insects need to locate suitable bodies of water to lay their eggs in and allow their aquatic larvae to develop. More than 300 species are known to solve this task by positive polarotaxis, relying primarily on the horizontally polarized light reflected from the water surface. The yellow fever mosquito Aedes (Stegomyia) aegypti has been thought to be an exception, locating its breeding habitats by chemical cues like odour of conspecifics, their eggs, or water vapour. We now demonstrate through dual-choice experiments that horizontally polarized light can also attract ovipositing Ae. aegypti females when the latter are deprived of chemical cues: water-filled transparent egg-trays illuminated by horizontally polarized light from below gained a 94.2% higher total number of eggs than trays exposed to unpolarized light, but only when no chemical substances capable of functioning as cues were present. Ae. aegypti is the first known water-associated insect in which polarotaxis exists, but does not play a dominant role in locating water bodies and can be constrained in the presence of chemical cues. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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