Contribuição para o estudo da biolojia dos culicidas: observações sobre a respiração nas larvas

Lima, A. da Costa

doi:10.1590/s0074-02761916000100003

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…Although there have been reiterated reports of mosquito larvae tolerating long submersion periods, probably breathing underwater, the phenomenon has remained anecdotal, and its physiological and practical significance for suffocation control methods is barely considered [3,4,9]. In our experiments, when completely submerged, larvae were able to survive for days, weeks, or even months, depending on the temperature of the water.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

“…This assertion was criticized by colleagues who distrusted the results due to the poor control of the experimental conditions [8]. Da Costa Lima [9] replicated some of the original experiments with additional care and reported similar observations to his earlier work. Da Costa Lima also noted the similarity of anal papillae to gills, in agreement with other colleagues who considered these structures to be respiratory organs in aquatic Diptera [10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

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Challenging Popular Belief, Mosquito Larvae Breathe Underwater

Alvarez-Costa,

Leonardi,

Giraud

et al. 2024

Insects

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Immature mosquitoes are thought to breathe only atmospheric air through their siphons despite reports of prolonged submerged survival. We studied the survival of last-instar larvae of Aedes aegypti fully submerged at different temperatures and measured the oxygen consumption from air and water-dissolved larvae and pupae of this species under different conditions. Larvae survived much longer than expected, reaching 50% mortality only after 58, 10, and 5 days at 15°, 25°, and 35 °C, respectively. Larval to pupa molt was only observed in larvae with access to air, whereas individuals kept submerged never molted. Although most of the oxygen was obtained from the air, larvae obtained 12.72% of their oxygen from the water, while pupae took only 5.32%. In both media, temperature affected the respiration rate of the larvae, with relatively close Q10 values (1.56 and 1.83 for water and air, respectively). A similar pattern of O2 consumption was observed in Ae. albopictus, whose larvae obtained 12.14% of their oxygen from the water. The detailed quantification of oxygen consumption by mosquito larvae showed that water-dissolved oxygen is not negligible and physiologically relevant, challenging the idea that mosquito larvae only breathe atmospheric oxygen.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%