Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) age determination by cuticular hydrocarbon analysis of female legs.

TitleAedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) age determination by cuticular hydrocarbon analysis of female legs.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication1999
AuthorsDesena, ML, Edman, JD, Clark, JM, Symington, SB, Scott, TW
JournalJournal of medical entomology
Volume36
Issue6
Pagination824-30
Date Published1999 Nov
AbstractWe previously described methods for age-grading female Aedes aegypti (L.) by gas chromatographic (GC) analysis of whole-body cuticular hydrocarbon patterns. Two regression models were developed that were based on the age-dependent, relative abundance of 2 cuticular hydrocarbons, pentacosane (GC peak 1) and nonacosane (GC peak 5). We have refined this method so that only the legs are required to age individual females. Two new regression models were developed that also use the relative abundance of a 3rd cuticular hydrocarbon, octacosane (GC peak 4). These models improve the overall accuracy of the cuticular hydrocarbon method for aging female mosquitoes, especially for older females from 132 to 165 degree-days (DD) of age (12-15 calendar days at 28 degrees C). The correlation coefficients (R2) for the best-fitted linear regression models for aging females from 0 to 132 and 0-165 DD were 0.80 and 0.81, respectively (P
Alternate JournalJ. Med. Entomol.