Potential for urban warming to postpone overwintering dormancy of temperate mosquitoes.

ABSTRACT: Cities are generally hotter than surrounding rural areas due to the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. These increases in temperature advance plant and animal phenology, development, and reproduction in the spring. However, research determining how increased temperatures affect the seasonal physiology of animals in the fall has been limited. The Northern house mosquito, Culex pipiens, is abundant in cities and transmits several pathogens including West Nile virus. Females of this species enter a state of developmental arrest, or reproductive diapause, in response to short days and low temperatures during autumn. Diapausing females halt reproduction and blood-feeding, and instead accumulate fat and seek sheltered overwintering sites. We found that exposure to increased temperatures in the lab

SUBMITTER: Fyie LR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11493156 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature