Aedes australis
| Aedes australis | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Diptera |
| Family: | Culicidae |
| Genus: | Aedes |
| Subgenus: | Halaedes |
| Species: | A. australis
|
| Binomial name | |
| Aedes australis | |
| Synonyms[3] | |
| |
Aedes australis is a brackish water mosquito species[4] from the subgenus Halaedes.[1] It is native to Australia. It was first found in New Zealand in 1961[5] and is now present in the southern half of the South Island.
Habit and habitat
The species breeds in littoral rock and brackish pools just above the tide line[6] and remains close to their breeding habitats.[5][7] Additionally, most adult females have been known and tested to be autogenous which allows females to lay their first batch of eggs before taking or ingesting a blood meal. Their autogenous capacities can however be greatly altered by the conditions that surround them in their environment, such as temperature. The percentage of autogenous females from the same breeding pool can vary from 40% in the summer to 85% in the winter due to temperature swings and slower development. There are anautogenous populations of Aedes australis in Tasmania and South Australia, meaning those mosquitoes have to consume blood to reproduce. A. australis are almost exclusively anautogenous in eastern New Zealand. In addition, humans are the most common source of blood for A. australis in those regions.[8]
The eggs of this species are rhomboidal in both ventral and dorsal view.[7]
References
- ^ a b "Aedes (Halaedes) australis (Erichson, 1842)". Catalogue of Life. Species 2000: Leiden, the Netherlands. Retrieved 8 September 2025.
- ^ "Aedes australis (Erichson, 1842)". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 8 September 2025.
- ^ "Species Aedes (Halaedes) australis (Erichson, 1842) Salt-water Mosquito". Australian Faunal Directory. Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. Retrieved 30 January 2026.
- ^ Gardner, JM; Pillai, JS (1987). "Tolypocladium cylindrosporum (Deuteromycotina: Moniliales), a fungal pathogen of the mosquito Aedes australis. III. Field trials against two mosquito species". Mycopathologia. 97 (2): 83–8. doi:10.1007/bf00436842. PMID 3574434.
- ^ a b "Aedes (Halaedes) australis (Erichson)" (PDF). New Zealand Biosecure Entomology laboratory, A division of Southern Monitoring Services Ltd. 31 Aug 2007.
- ^ "Mosquitoes of Australia". Department of Medical Entomology, Australia. Archived from the original on 2 March 2022.
- ^ a b Linley; R., J; Geary, M.J; Russell, R.C (1992). "The eggs of Aedes australis and Aedes camptorhynchus (Diptera: Culicidae)". Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association. 24 (1).
- ^ Brust, Reinhart A. (1997). "Ecology of the Aedes australis (Erichson) 1842 Complex (Diptera: Culicidae) in Australia and New Zealand". Australian Journal of Entomology. 36 (3): 287–292. doi:10.1111/j.1440-6055.1997.tb01471.x. ISSN 1440-6055.
Further reading
- Pillai, J.S. (1969). "A Coelomomyces infection of Aedes australis in New Zealand". Journal of Invertebrate Pathology. 14 (1): 93–95. Bibcode:1969JInvP..14...93P. doi:10.1016/0022-2011(69)90014-7.
- Manning, Deborah L. (1978). "Mouthparts of larvae of Opifex fuscus and Aedes australis (Diptera: Gulicidae); a scanning electron microscope study". New Zealand Journal of Zoology. 5 (4): 801–806. doi:10.1080/03014223.1978.10423822.