Epidemiological Research Team, National Institute of Animal Health, 3-1-5, Kannondai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0856, Japan.
Parasitol Res. 2011 Jun;108(6):1575-8. doi: 10.1007/s00436-010-2048-y. Epub 2010 Sep 18.
The flight behavior of adult Culicoides biting midges is associated with their likelihood to reach nearby host animals and spread diseases. Therefore, evaluating the effects of atmospheric factors on the flight performances of these insects is important for understanding the spread of diseases in various circumstances. We evaluated the effects of different temperatures on the flight behavior of Culicoides oxystoma and Culicoides maculatus under laboratory conditions. The flight activities for both species particularly increased in the range between 10°C and 20°C, while the activities under 10°C were very limited for both species. The temperature when one half of the proportion of insects had flown was estimated to be 18.1°C for C. oxystoma and slightly higher than the value of 17.4°C for C. maculatus by fitting sigmoid curves. However, the wide 95% confidence interval observed for C. maculatus did not statistically justify the difference. The flight behavior of adult Culicoides biting midges was highly influenced by temperature. Our results would be of use for modeling studies or geographical analyses of diseases transmitted by these insects.
成蚊的飞行行为与其接近附近宿主动物和传播疾病的可能性相关。因此，评估大气因素对这些昆虫飞行性能的影响对于了解各种情况下疾病的传播非常重要。我们在实验室条件下评估了不同温度对氧化硫蠓和斑须蠓的飞行行为的影响。这两个物种的飞行活动在 10°C 到 20°C 之间显著增加，而在 10°C 以下两个物种的活动都非常有限。通过拟合 S 型曲线，估计氧化硫蠓的半数比例昆虫飞行的温度为 18.1°C，略高于斑须蠓的 17.4°C 值。然而，对于斑须蠓，观察到的较宽的 95%置信区间在统计学上不能证明存在差异。成蚊的飞行行为受温度的影响很大。我们的结果将有助于这些昆虫传播的疾病的建模研究或地理分析。
