Biology

Environmental effects on bet hedging in Aedes mosquito egg hatch

Document Type

Article

Abstract

We used a path analysis procedure to examine the influence of environmental effects on the egg hatching response of the container breeding mosquito, Aedes triseriatus. A. triseriatus eggs were collected from 22 different sites across the eastern US, and exposed to repeated hatch stimuli in the laboratory. The resulting data were used to construct hatch indexes for each site. Structural equation modeling was used to discriminate among hypotheses relating to the functional relationships between population hatch trait and local climatic conditions. The results suggest that the delayed hatch pattern is an adaptive bet-hedging strategy that allows the species to manage desiccation risks. The selected model indicates that environmental variables differentially affect the immediate and the delayed, long term hatch patterns. High temperatures directly reduce the number of egg hatching on the first stimulus, but only indirectly affect the delayed hatch pattern. Low precipitation and high variability in precipitation directly increase the delaying pattern. The hatch trait appears to be a critical adaptation that allows the species to occupy a broad range in east North America. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Publication Title

Evolutionary Ecology

Publication Date

3-8-2010

Volume

24

Issue

5

First Page

1159

Last Page

1169

ISSN

0269-7653

DOI

10.1007/s10682-010-9359-4

Keywords

Aedes triseriatus, bet-hedging, environmental effect, hatch trait, path analysis

Cross Post Location

Student Publications

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