| Popis: |
Background The emergence of insecticide resistance in mosquitoes necessitates the exploration, development and validation of alternative and sustainable biological strategies for controlling mosquitoes in their natural environments.Methods We assessed the predatory effect of Utricularia aurea, an aquatic carnivorous plant found in the Indian sub-continent, Japan, and Australia, on four instar (larval) stages of Aedes aegypti, Anopheles stephensi, and Culex quinquefasciatus, in the laboratory and field settings.Results In the laboratory, within twelve hours, U. aurea predated ~ 95% of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd instars of the three mosquito species, ~ 80% of the 4th instars of Ae. aegypti and An. stephensi and ~ 60% of 4th instars of Cx. quinquefasciatus. The predatory effect of U. aurea significantly varied among the three mosquito species and their instar stages. The effect of U. aurea on the instars of Cx. quinquefasciatus differed significantly from that on the instars of Ae. aegypti and An. stephensi. The effect of U. aurea on the 4th instars was significantly lower than that on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd instars of the mosquitoes. The effect of U. aurea was higher during the first hour when compared to the other time points; within the first hour, U. aurea predated 58, 45, 61% of 1st instars of Ae. aegypti, An. stephensi, and Cx. quinquefasciatus, respectively. In the field settings, at the end of 16 days, U. aurea predated 71 and 76% of the immature Ae. aegypti and An. stephensi respectively.Conclusion Our findings suggest U. aurea can be utilized as a potential bio-larval control agent in natural environments; however, the current claim warrants additional investigations in different natural transmission settings . |
