Hi all,

We have been buzzily (pun intended) working with on mosquitoes in our lab but we are about to come up for air. We have some great Mosquitoes in Hawai`i project news!

First, we are very excited not only have we gotten a new species record for the project, it came from our great new collaborator Dr. Matthew Medeiros from UH Manoa. Matthew recently started as an assistant professor in the Pacific Biosciences Research Center at UH. Matt got his undergraduate at UH and his PhD at the University of Missouri-St. Louis studying avian malaria under Robert Ricklefs. Now that Matthew is back in Hawaii he has begun to work on Hawai`i's invasive mosquitoes and the pathogens they transmit. 

Matt has been actively adding records to and identifying mosquitoes on our project. This attention paid off on March 16th, Matthew made the first project observation of an Inland Floodwater Mosquito Aedes vexans on Oahu! Here is his photo:

To identify this species, look for the combination of the a 'fuzzy brown back' (the scutum covered with short brown scales lacking any particular pattern) coupled with obvious 'B' shaped markings that run sideways on the dorsal surface of the abdomen (or 'tergites' see here for photos and more information).

Second, we are ALMOST at 1000 records, thank you so much! As of today we have:

983 OBSERVATIONS of 7 SPECIES made by 135 OBSERVERS and determined by 63 IDENTIFIERS!!! Here is the species breakdown!

With 798 of these observations classified at research grade. Let's try to get to push this to 1000 research grade records!

I have some more news from the lab and new collaborators to introduce in my next message so STAY tuned! 

All the best,

Durrell (@cydno)

Dear Mosquito in Hawai`i Volunteers:

This being National Volunteer Week (April 15-21) I am taking a moment to recognize all of your efforts to advance the goals of this project! Thank you for all your volunteerism! 

Thanks to @lynnbeittel for tirelessly promoting the project, identifying over 400 records, and continuing to collect data and thanks go equally to @waimeamiddleschool for continuing to engage so many students leading to our second highest number of records! Thanks also go to this power couple (257 records total and growing) for keeping the N. end of the Big Island in data--including moving downhill to a house in the Aedes aegypti zone! Also on the Big Island, thanks to @vaneden who so creativly worked on combating the last dengue outbreak, collecting data from Kalapana to Kapoho and beyond, and got many people activated to combat mosquitoes as well as to join this project. 

Thanks to our teachers who are moving the project forward including @ychan from Iolani school in Oahu who has engaged so many students with this project and has also engaged teachers at not only her own school but promoted the project to teachers statewide! From the Big Island thanks to @bensonreading who has joined @waimeamiddleschool to keep students engaged and learning about their islands' unique ecology!! Back on Oahu, thanks to teacher @tullybio  (Kamehamea schools) who has built a curriculum around mosquito larval collection and is launching an renewed effort to collect more data with her students, keep your eyes out for her student's data soon!

Thanks to the stand-out students involved including @annafreitas, @katherine_hui and many many more who have participated from Oahu to Big Island!

Thanks to all old and new volunteers including our overall record leader (@mauiphp),  our new colleague (@ikaikasci) and keen observers such as @donkephart who located the only location on the Big Island where you can regularly find Aedes aegypti without Aedes albopictus!

Sorry if I missed you, there are so many more people involved it is hard to thank them all. For more information, check out their observations, and their identifications!   2018 is shaping up to be a transformative year for the project with more opportunities to get involved and more people contributing to the vision for the project! So as always "keep on catching" and stay safe out there!

Thank you all!

All the best,

Durrell (@cydno) 

Dear Mosquito in Hawai'i participants,

Following up on my last post, I have some great news! I am happy to introduce two more mosquito expert collaborators who could use your help!

First is Dr. Dennis LaPointe, a research ecologist from the U.S. Geological Survey Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. Dennis is a highly experienced vector ecologist who has worked with Carter Atkinson and others on the S. House Mosquito (Culex quinquefasciatus) that transmits avian malaria in Hawai'i. Dennis has new funding to do quantitative sampling of Aedes mosquitoes on the leeward Big Island.

In order to facilitate this intensive fieldwork, Dennis has hired Dr. Argon Steel (iNaturalist profile @argonsteel), who recently received his PhD from the University of Hawai'i-Kaka’ako under the supervision of Dr. Shannon Bennett. Argon has experience studying dengue virus and the mosquitoes that transmit dengue virus including lots of experience in SE Asia.

Argon and Dennis are looking for locations to conduct ovitrapping across leeward Big Island to answer the question of how Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus respond to altitude, rainfall and other factors that vary across the area. Argon will seek to deploy traps at four altitudes in six transects from S. Point all the way to Kawaihae.

Their basic study can build upon the great set of distributional records you have collected and the range maps derived from our preliminary work (Kapan et al. 2016, see link below). Dennis and Argon need hosted study sites: locations that Argon can access where he can place two (or more) ovitraps and return to check the traps on a weekly basis for 6-12 months.

In addition to potentially providing locations to host the traps, it would be great if we could put out the word to help Argon seek more hosted sites for the study. In addition to finding contacts of your own, perhaps one of you can introduce Argon to the Dengue / Zika awareness group.

Dennis and Argon’s work will add quantitative regular sampling to the mosquito knowledge that you have helped build. In exchange for this work Argon and Dennis will work with volunteer hosts to share what they are finding and help build the iNaturalist mosquitoes in Hawai'i database in the process. This will be a great way to return relevant information back to the community as the study progresses.

To volunteer to host traps or suggest others to get in touch with send Argon an e-mail to @hawaii.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">argon@hawaii.edu or message him on iNaturalist.

Thanks for helping build our knowledge of the distribution and abundance of mosquitoes in Hawai'i!

All the best,

Durrell (@cydno)

Durrell D. Kapan, Ph.D.
Senior Research Fellow
Institute for Biodiversity Science and Sustainability
California Academy of Sciences

Kapan, D. D., Lindberg, K., Henderson, J., & Winchester, J. C. (2016). The distribution of Aedes aegypti and albopictus in Hawaii. Proceedings and Papers of the Mosquito and Vector Control Association of California, 84, 100–103. (search PDF for Kapan).