Panyukova E.V., Novakovskaya I.V., Patova E.N. 2018. Larval algae nutrition of Aedes communis (De Geer, 1776) // Russian Entomol. J. Vol.27. No.4: 443–449 [in English].
Institute of Biology, Komi Science Centre, Ural Division RAS. E-mail: panjukova@ib.komisc.ru
doi: 10.15298/rusentj.27.4.13
ABSTRACT. The paper informs about larval nutrition of the Aedes communis (De Geer, 1776) (Diptera: Culicidae) blood-sucking mosquito in typical environments such as temporal water-bodies under spruce forests. Algae as a nutrition component for larvae of blood-sucking mosquitoes were analyzed for species composition. The work was done in dwarf shrub and green moss spruce forests in the outskirts of the Vylgort settlement (the Syktyvdinsky region, the Komi Republic). Using the complex approach, we obtained food samples with live algae from larval intestines and cultivated the samples in breeding grounds to specify algal species composition. Generally, 12 algal species from five orders were identified in larval intestines of А. communis mosquitoes. They are Cyanobacteria/Cyanoprokaryota (Chroococcus sp., Anabaena sp.), Ochrophyta (Botrydiopsis eriensis J.W. Snow, Tribonema vulgare Pascher), Bacillariophyta (Pinnularia sp.), Chlorophyta (Bracteacoccus giganteus H.W. Bischoff et H.C. Bold, Chloroidium saccharophilum (W. Krüger) Darienko, Gustavs, Mudimu, Menendez, Schumann, Karsten, Friedl et Proschold, Microthamnion kuetzingianum Nägeli ex Kütz., Pseudococcomyxa simplex (Mainx) Fott, Schizochlamydella minutissima Broady, Stichococcus bacillaris Nägeli), and Streptophyta (Euastrum sp.). Several algal species from mosquito larval intestines are now maintained as live cultures in algal collection of the Institute of Biology (SYKOA).
Diatomic algae do not get destructed in A. communis intestines. Mosquitoes partly do not digest Ochrophyta and green algae which are situated in the middle of food bolus and often get out of the organism intact. The role of algae for nutrition of mosquito larvae is still understudied. Larvae feed on what they can. Like bottom particles, they possibly swallow diatomic algae to rub and mill food in intestines.
KEY WORDS: Culicidae, Aedes communis, algae, nutrition, spruce forests.