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Most of adult female mosquitoes secrete saliva to facilitate blood sucking, digestion and nutrition, and mosquito-borne disease prevention. The knowledge of classification and characteristics of sialotranscriptome genes are still quite limited. Anopheles sinensis is a major malaria vector in China and southeast Asian countries. In this study, the An. sinensis sialotranscriptome was sequenced using Illumina sequencing technique with a total of 10 907 unigenes to be obtained and annotated in biological functions and pathways, and 10 470 unigenes were mapped to An. sinensis reference genome with 70.46% of genes having 90%-100% genomemapping through bioinformatics analysis. Thesemapped genes were classified into four categories: housekeeping (6632 genes), secreted (1177), protein-coding genes with function-unknown (2646) and transposable element (15). The housekeeping genes were divided into 27 classes, and the secreted genes were divided into 11 classes and 96 families. The classification, characteristics and evolution of these classes/families of secreted genes are further described and discussed. The comparison of the 1177 secreted genes in An. sinensis in the Anophelinae subfamily with 811 in Psorophora albipes in the Culicinae subfamily show that six classes/subclasses have the gene number more than twice and two classes (uniquely found in anophelines, and Orphan proteins of unique standing) are unique in the former compared with the latter, whereas four classes/subclasses are much expanded and uniquely found in the Aedes class and is unique in the later. The An. sinensis sialotranscriptome sequence data is the most complete in mosquitoes to date, and the analyses provide a comprehensive information frame for further research of mosquito sialotranscriptome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to determine where to better allocate resources and pest management, we compared the mosquito population between urban and rural areas. We sampled adult mosquitoes and larvae in College Station and Snook as our representative populations. Our methods included a mosquito trap built from PVC and fine mesh for the adult mosquitoes, and a dipper to sample the larval population. Our results showed inconclusive data for the adults due to malfunction of the mosquito trap. The data for the larvae showed a higher density in urban populations however, this data maybe be deceiving due to the timing of the collection of larvae in the rural area. The rural population makeup was dominated by the Psorophora (Fabricius) (Diptera: Culicidae) species. On the other hand the urban population makeup consisted of Aedes vexans (Meigen) (Diptera: Culicidae) and Culex quinquefasciatus (Say) (Diptera: Culicidae). We believe that the Psorophora eliminated the other competition due to its carnivorous nature and is the reason for the lack of variation of species in the rural population. In regards to population density comparison, our results proved to be inconclusive due to factors unaccounted for. Although, we believe our data regarding population makeup is accurate and the data can be used to analyze the effectiveness of the integrated vector manage of the College Station area nearing the winter months. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mosquito-borne diseases are responsible for millions of hospitalizations and deaths worldwide each year. Many species with a high vectorial capacity for diseases such as West Nile virus, yellow fever, and equine encephalitis are endemic to the southern U.S. The different mosquito species can be found in a broad spectrum of environments, ranging from nearly clean water to brackish runoff. Certain mosquito species have a preference as to where they lay their eggs, including permanent water species and temporary water species. Four different locations were sampled for the presence of mosquito larvae. Some collected larvae were preserved immediately and the rest reared out to adults before they were identified down to genus and species. Mosquitos from the genus Aedes, Culex, and Psorophora were identified, with Aedes species being the most common. Identification of the different species collected is important in order to understand the various habitats these mosquitos breed and properly develop specific control methods to reduce populations. Knowing which species are present in a particular location is also essential in identifying the different diseases that may be present; as different mosquito species are vectors for different pathogens. Knowledge of what pathogens are in an area can help raise awareness about the importance of mosquito prevention. It also informs residents what symptoms to look for if a person falls ill with a suspected mosquito-borne disease. This survey served to identify some of the common species of mosquito present in various locations in the Bryan College Station area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Background Psorophora mosquitoes are exclusively found in the Americas and have been associated with transmission of encephalitis and West Nile fever viruses, among other arboviruses. Mosquito salivary glands represent the final route of differentiation and transmission of many parasites. They also secrete molecules with powerful pharmacologic actions that modulate host hemostasis, inflammation, and immune response. Here, we employed next generation sequencing and proteome approaches to investigate for the first time the salivary composition of a mosquito member of the Psorophora genus. We additionally discuss the evolutionary position of this mosquito genus into the Culicidae family by comparing the identity of its secreted salivary compounds to other mosquito salivary proteins identified so far. Results Illumina sequencing resulted in 13,535,229 sequence reads, which were assembled into 3,247 contigs. All families were classified according to their in silico-predicted function/ activity. Annotation of these sequences allowed classification of their products into 83 salivary protein families, twenty (24.39%) of which were confirmed by our subsequent proteome analysis. Two protein families were deorphanized from Aedes and one from Ochlerotatus, while four protein families were described as novel to Psorophora genus because they had no match with any other known mosquito salivary sequence. Several protein families described as exclusive to Culicines were present in Psorophora mosquitoes, while we did not identify any member of the protein families already known as unique to Anophelines. Also, the Psorophora salivary proteins had better identity to homologs in Aedes (69.23%), followed by Ochlerotatus (8.15%), Culex (6.52%), and Anopheles (4.66%), respectively. Conclusions This is the first sialome (from the Greek sialo = saliva) catalog of salivary proteins from a Psorophora mosquito, which may be useful for better understanding the lifecycle of this mosquito and the role of its salivary secretion in arboviral transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results of laboratory tests indicated the average survival rates for Psorophora columbiae eggs remained quite high for all of the egg populations exposed to a temperature of 27°C (range 83.0–100.0% survival) after 96 days of exposure, except for the non-diapausing eggs on dry soil (66.3%). In regard to the exposure of egg populations to moderately cold temperatures (i.e. 8°C, 4°C and −2°C) for periods of up to 16 days, survival rates for egg populations exposed to 8°C continued to remain relatively high (average >85%) for the remainder of the experimental exposure period (i.e. 96 days). Diapausing Ps. columbiae eggs were more tolerant (82.0% survival) to low temperatures (−2°C) than non-diapausing eggs (2.4% survival) for 64 days, particularly at temperatures of and below 4°C. Diapausing and non-diapausing eggs were similar in their ability to survive under high temperatures (34°C and 38°C). High soil moisture (30–40%) or substrate moisture (95% relative humidity) content appeared to enhance the ability of the mosquito eggs to survive both low and high temperature extremes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical declines in multiple insect taxa have been documented across the globe in relation to landscape-level changes in land use and climate. However, declines have either not been universally observed in all regions or examined for all species. Because mosquitoes are insects of public health importance, we analyzed a longitudinal mosquito surveillance data set from Connecticut (CT), United States (U.S.) from 2001 to 2019 to identify changes in mosquito community composition over time. We first analyzed annual site-level collections and metrics of mosquito community composition with generalized linear/additive mixed effects models; we also examined annual species-level collections using the same tools. We then examined correlations between statewide collections and weather variables as well as site-level collections and land cover classifications. We found evidence that the average trap night collection of mosquitoes has increased by ~ 60% and statewide species richness has increased by ~ 10% since 2001. Total species richness was highest in the southern portion of CT, likely due to the northward range expansion of multiple species within the Aedes, Anopheles, Culex, and Psorophora genera. How the expansion of mosquito populations in the northeast U.S. will alter mosquito-borne pathogen transmission in the region will require further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A revised checklist of the mosquito fauna known to occur in Maine is reported. In addition we are detailing the finding of eight new state records in five genera, that is, Anopheles barberi, Culiseta minnesotae, Ochlerotatus dorsalis, Oc. japonicus, Oc. riparius, Oc. taeniorhynchus, Psorophora ferox, and Uranotaenia sapphirina. Locality records are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The year 1971 was the first time in New York State (NYS) that Eastern equine encephalitis virus (EEEV) was identified in mosquitoes, in Culiseta melanura and Culiseta morsitans. At that time, state and county health departments began surveillance for EEEV in mosquitoes. Methods: From 1993 to 2012, county health departments continued voluntary participation with the state health department in mosquito and arbovirus surveillance. Adult female mosquitoes were trapped, identified, and pooled. Mosquito pools were tested for EEEV by Vero cell culture each of the twenty years. Beginning in 2000, mosquito extracts and cell culture supernatant were tested by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Results: During the years 1993 to 2012, EEEV was identified in: Culiseta melanura, Culiseta morsitans, Coquillettidia perturbans, Aedes canadensis (Ochlerotatus canadensis), Aedes vexans, Anopheles punctipennis, Anopheles quadrimaculatus, Psorophora ferox, Culex salinarius, and Culex pipiens-restuans group. EEEV was detected in 427 adult mosquito pools of 107,156 pools tested totaling 3.96 million mosquitoes. Detections of EEEV occurred in three geographical regions of NYS: Sullivan County, Suffolk County, and the contiguous counties of Madison, Oneida, Onondaga and Oswego. Detections of EEEV in mosquitoes occurred every year from 2003 to 2012, inclusive. EEEV was not detected in 1995, and 1998 to 2002, inclusive. Conclusions: This was the first time in NYS that EEEV was detected in Cx. salinarius, Ps. ferox and An. punctipennis. The detection of EEEV in mosquitoes every year for 10 years was the longest time span since surveillance began in 1971. The calendar date of the earliest annual appearance of EEEV in mosquitoes did not change during surveillance spanning 42 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spelling of specific names for a species of Psorophora and 4 species of Verrallina ate corrected to correspond with the gender of the corresponding genus. An explanation is given for treating Udaya as masculine, rather than feminine as indicated in A Catalog of the Mosquitoes of the World. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]