Week 2

 After catching mosquitoes, the next step in the protocol is to sort mosquitos underneath a microscope. So to start off the second week of the internship, Ben showed me the proper way to identify different insects in the trap as well as the key field features of Culex mosquitoes! The first thing to look for to identify mosquitoes from other invertebrates are their scaly wings. They have hair-like appendages on the very ends of their wings. They also have a long proboscis, a long tubular mouthpiece used to suck up the blood of other animals.

The insect above lacks scaly wings while
the insect below is a Culex mosquito. 

Culex in particular focuses on avians and people, though different subspecies have a preference for each group with Culex pipiens and Culex quinquefasciatus biting both humans and birds and people. The other species in the genus, Culex restuans tends to feed primarily on birds. After identifying the insect to be a mosquito, the next field characteristic of Culex I was told to look for is their color. Culex tend to be a golden brown while the other vectors genus Ades, are black with white markings. When color varies, which it often does, look at the shape of the abdomen! The Ades mosquito has a pointed, sharp ended abdomen while the Culex mosquito has a rounded abdomen. I used that field characteristic a lot when identifying Culex. Based on the resources available to Culex mosquitos in the larval stage greatly changes their size. I saw this when sorting mosquitos as some females were much larger than others, with compound eyes of varying iridescence.

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Here is a picture of mosquitos collected from the Gravid traps.
Although gravid traps are designed specifically for Culex, we often get other species of mosquitos such as the Ades mosquito, shown to the left. The center and right mosquitos show the variation between Culex mosquitos.

Another fact field characteristic we pay attention to a lot is the difference between male and female Culex mosquitoes. Male culex mosquitoes have fuzzy antennae while females have fewer hairs on their antenna. 

The Culex to the left is male. The Culex to the right is female.

Aside from Culex and Ades, there are so many other species that are attracted to the fermented alfalfa hay water even though the gravid traps are specifically designed to attract egg laying, female Culex mosquitoes. Here is a picture of different insects from the trap underneath a microscope. 

Collection of non-Culex insects that end up in the Gravid trap. It's very interesting to see the biological diversity of flies and other mosquitos!

 Unfortunately Izi got sick this week, so it was just Ben and I driving the pick up truck and setting gravid traps. Today we visited the University of Maryland School of Medicine Baltimore Campus, A Research farm in Clarksville, and the Backwoods of a suburb in Ellicott city. Here are some pictures of the Road trip!

This is a picture of the highway leading into Baltimore
 leading to our first drop off site at UMBC Medical School.
 

This is a picture of the University of Maryland Medical School.
A gravid trap was set up behind the University's police office. 

This is a picture of the clearing that leads to the second drop off site,
a suburb in Ellicott city.