Department of Physics, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey.
Center for Vector Biology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
J Biophotonics. 2019 Oct;12(10):e201900123. doi: 10.1002/jbio.201900123. Epub 2019 Jul 15.
Improving the survey of mosquito populations is of the utmost importance to further enhance mitigation techniques that protect human populations from mosquito-borne diseases. While mosquito populations are generally studied using physical traps, stand-off optical sensors allow to study insect ecosystems with potentially better spatial and temporal resolution. This can be greatly beneficial to eco-epidemiological models and various mosquito control programs. In this contribution, we demonstrate that the gravidity of female mosquitoes can be identified from changes in their spectral and polarimetric backscatter cross sections. Among other predictive variables, the wing beat frequency and the depolarization ratio of the mosquito body allows for the identification of gravid females with a precision and recall of 86% and 87%, respectively. Since female mosquitoes need a blood meal to become gravid, statistics on gravidity is of prime importance as only females that have been gravid might carry infectious diseases. In addition, it allows to detect possible breeding habitat, predict a potential increase in the mosquito population and provide a better overall understanding of the ecosystem dynamics. As a result, targeted and localized mitigation techniques can be used, reducing the cost and improving the efficiency of mosquito population control.
提高蚊子种群的调查水平对于进一步增强保护人类免受蚊媒疾病的缓解技术至关重要。虽然通常使用物理陷阱来研究蚊子种群，但离轴光学传感器可以潜在地以更好的时空分辨率来研究昆虫生态系统。这对生态流行病学模型和各种蚊子控制计划有很大的好处。在本研究中，我们证明可以通过它们的光谱和偏振后向散射截面的变化来识别雌性蚊子的怀孕状态。在其他预测变量中，蚊子的翅膀拍打频率和身体的去偏振比可以分别以 86%和 87%的精度和召回率识别出怀孕的雌性。由于雌性蚊子需要吸血才能怀孕，因此怀孕统计数据非常重要，因为只有已经怀孕的雌性蚊子才可能携带传染病。此外，它还可以检测到可能的繁殖栖息地，预测蚊子数量的潜在增加，并提供对生态系统动态的更好理解。因此，可以使用有针对性和本地化的缓解技术，降低成本并提高蚊子种群控制的效率。
