Jeffrey Bringhurst Article 6 PLSOILIN 126 4/10/12 In North Carolina, three species of mosquitoes were collected from suburban

neighborhoods. These species included, Ae. albopictus, Ae. vexans, and Aedes triseriatus. The goal of the research had four main reasons; to describe host-feeding patterns, to observe the effects of mammal (human and domestic animal) presence on feeding selection, to determine if avian species were fed upon, and to outline feeding behavior of the Ae. albopictus species on humans. In order to collect the data, census information was collected from the target areas including human presence, domestic animal presence, presence of farm animals, and also how much time was spent outside during different times of day for both humans and domestic animals. The data was collected in two waves. One, consisting of four neighborhoods was collected in 2002. Another, using eight neighborhoods, was used in 2003. The mosquitoes were collected using a large-bore aspirator on the landscapes of the neighborhood areas. The mosquitoes were then counted, labeled by sex and species, and frozen. After this, many DNA tests and systems were used to determine the different alleles they were looking for. The several different goals were tested using different methods, and the results were analyzed even more thoroughly by only accepting certain levels of certain assays and alleles. The main findings that the researchers found from the research were as follows. As a whole, mosquitoes (regardless of species) preferred to feed on mammalian (human, deer, squirrel more specifically) species. Ae. albopictus fed mostly on humans, dogs, and cats. Also, of mosquitoes that fed on avian species, most fed on domestic chickens. The results support a previous claim that the albopictus species tend to feed by availability and mostly on mammals. This is proven by the fact that >80% of the sample data tested positive for mammal alleles. I believe the research and findings are true and support this claim because the process was as random as possible within the parameters. Also the DNA tests were only tested on the most prevalent subjects, while less-potent DNA samples that fell below certain test levels were discarded after counting. This helps to give the validity of the data as reasoning behind the claim that mosquitoes spread arboviruses through mammal hosts.