Survey of Immature Mosquito Predators from Taro Fields on the Island of Kauai, Hawaii

Abstract

A survey of predators of immature mosquitoes was conducted on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, in taro fields, major larval mosquito habitat of Culex quinquefasciatus Say. The survey consisted of examinations of samples from taro field water in two series: monthly at five locations and weekly at two of the same five locations. Copepods (Macrocyclops albidus Jurine), mosquito eating fish (Gambusia affinis Baird and Girard and Poecilia reticulata Peters) and aquatic insects, including backswimmers (Buenoa pallipes Fabricius) and larvae of Odonata spp., were the most-commonly observed predators. While copepods were observed at all locations, backswimmers and mosquito fish were variably present. Copepod populations from all locations fluctuated during the surveys. For the two sites sampled on a weekly basis, adult mosquito counts were higher at Lihue (65.60 per gravid-trap-day) than at Hanapepe (39.91) while larvae were more frequently present at Hanapepe (79% of weeks) than Lihue (33%). There was no clear relationship at these sites between the relative abundance of the most frequently collected mosquito-feeding insects, copepods, and numbers of adult mosquitoes trapped.