It’s getting hot in here…

My dissertation for my doctorate was a mixed bag of bioinformatics, genetics, behavior, and thermobiology. It was mostly focused around my new favorite mosquito, the eastern treehole mosquito (Aedes triseriatus). Ae. triseriatus is not a looker when compared to their dainty, striped-legged cousins such as Ae. albopictus, the Asian tiger mosquito, but they are fascinating and native to my region. Aedes mosquitoes engage in a bet hedging strategy when it’s time for their eggs to hatch. When you live in a space with limited resources that might evaporate on you at any minute, it is wise to not hatch all at once. So they hatch a little at a time, every time they get wet after a period of drying. When the bacteria levels (their food source) increase, covering the outside of their eggs, and dissolved oxygen levels drop - it’s time to come out and explore the treehole, or cemetery vase, or wherever their mothers dropped them off. My question was, how does temperature affect what inundation round the eggs hatch in and how many will hatch during any given round? Well, unsurprisingly, temperature really front loads the hatching! They tend to hatch in the first three rounds the warmer the water temperature is. The cooler the water temperature, the more even the hatching rates. If you’d like to read the paper “Temperature influences patterns of staggered egg hatching in the eastern treehole mosquito (Aedes triseriatus)” here is a link to the publication. If you don’ have access, feel free to contact me and ask! You can e-mail me or go through my Research Gate profile.