Mosquito and bacterial diversity in Phytotelmata in northern Taiwan
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Mosquito and bacterial diversity in Phytotelmata in northern Taiwan Matan Shelomi 1
&
Chun-Ting Lin 1
Received: 27 February 2020 / Accepted: 18 September 2020 # African Association of Insect Scientists 2020
Abstract Mosquitoes such as the disease-vectoring genus Aedes lay their eggs in containers of stagnant water. Some species prefer plant containers, or phytotelmata. We tested the hypothesis that bacteria inside these containers, which are known from experiments to affect mosquito oviposition choices, correlate with insect presence or absence in the field. We sampled natural containers from two localities in northern Taiwan: the Fushan Botanical Garden (Yilan County) and the Cherry Blossom Lane of Pingjing Street (Taipei City), the latter thrice over two years. In addition to identifying mosquito larvae, we performed culturing-enriched molecular profiling of the total bacterial communities in the container waters and the larva themselves. Phytotelmata mosquito diversity and microbial diversity were low (less than five species of either) and differed over time. In this study, the presence of mosquitoes, including medically significant genera, did not seem to correlate with bacterial communities or plant species. Both mosquito and microbe communities in these containers vary too greatly with time and on a microgeographic scale to identify specific microbe-insect interactions using metabarcoding. Research should focus on single-species experiments with cultured microbes, or long-term field studies covering all seasons. Keywords Larvae . Mosquitoes . Microbiome . Metabarcoding . 16S . Phytotelmata
Introduction Phytotelmata are natural containers found in terrestrial plants that fill with water, such as tree hollows, bamboo stumps, pitcher plants, and bromeliad axils (Kitching 2000). Even fallen leaves or nut shells that fill with water would be considered phytotelmata, and can be inhabited by various aquatic organisms such as Odonata and Diptera larvae as well as amphibians (Lounibos 1981; Caldwell 1993). Many disease vectoring mosquitoes (Diptera, Culicidae) spend their larval and pupal stages in phytotelmata, although some mosquito species prefer artificial containers associated with urban environments like used tires (Yee et al. 2012). Vector management requires knowing which container types are more likely to house species of interest, to correctly guide container reduction and Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s42690-020-00278-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Matan Shelomi [email protected] 1
Department of Entomology, National Taiwan University, No 27, Lane 113, Sec 4, Roosevelt Rd, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
treatment efforts (Chen et al. 1994). Understanding the container characteristics that drive these preferences can lead to improved trap design, container management practices, and novel repellent compounds. The microbial composition of containers has been hypothesized to af
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