The Effect of extreme Temperatures on different Stages of Aëdes aegypti (L.)

Earlier investigations of the effects of extreme temperatures on different stages of Aëdes aegypti (L.) were supplemented by studies of eggs, larvae and pupae in water, and of eggs and adult females in air at various relative humidities.Larvae of the same stage, young pupae (defined as those less than half-an-hour old) and old pupae (at least 36 hours old), in groups of 100, 25 and 25, respectively, were kept for various periods at low temperatures in incubators, or, at high temperatures in glass cylinders closed at their lower ends by cloth filters and inserted into water baths, and then transferred to water at 28°C. and the mortality determined from the numbers surviving 24 hr. later (in the case of larvae) or becoming adult (in the case of pupae). Eggs in batches of 1,000 were similarly treated, except that periods of 24 hr. in water at 28°C. with yeast as food added were alternated with 24-hr. periods of drying, and mortality determined on the number that hatched and survived to the third or fourth stage. Adult females (four days old) were exposed in groups of 50 for various periods in jars over appropriate solutions giving a complete range of relative humidities and kept at low, medium and high temperatures. Eggs in batches of 1,000 were subjected to the same treatments. The adults were kept at 28°C. and 60 per cent. R.H. before treatment and for 24 hr. afterwards and mortality then determined. Mortality of eggs was determined after alternate 24-hr. periods of wetting and drying at 28°C., as in the case of eggs treated in water. The results of all the experiments were expressed as the exposure-times required to give 50 per cent. mortality (T50), calculated from the observed data.