Rainfall triggered dynamics of Aedes mosquito aggressiveness

Inspired by Davidson method of estimating daily survivals of a structureless population of mosquitoes, we present a model which describes the behavior of floodwater mosquitoes in terms of emergence functions following a rainfall event, blood feeding frequency and parous stages, and survival at various stages. As a generalization of the Davidson formula, we have developed an approach for dealing with the dynamics of structured population of mosquitoes, and derived various formulas allowing assessment of demographic parameters like durations of gonotrophic cycles and (apparent) daily survivals. The method was subsequently applied to field data of floodwater mosquitoes Aedes vexans arabiensis, potential vectors of Rift Valley fever in West Africa, collected during the 2003 rainy season in Barkedji, Senegal. We found that mosquitoes emerged about 3 to 4 days following an efficient rainfall, and mosquito emergences, described by a bell shaped function, lasted for about 2 days. The mean duration of the gonotrophic cycle was 3 days and the apparent daily survival about 0.87. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.