Week 5: (7/1-7/5)

Happy July! Although this week was short with the holiday weekend, I was still able to get a lot done as well as create a game plan for the coming weeks! 

Mosquitoes: 

The results of last week's mesocosm study in a 5 L container was that the pupae lived but the larvae died. This was expected as fourth instars and pupae do not feed and therefore would not be impacted by the larvicide. I also started another mesocosm study this time with 2 5L buckets. The treatment was 1 microliter per liter. The larvae in each bucket were taken from the two different colonies that we have which is important for what we learned later in the week. 

This week I was able to do a lot of microscope work, which was really interesting for me. I looked at both live and dead larvae. I also learned the process of making permanent microscope slides which involved heat shocking the live larvae, then placing them in 80% ethanol to kill them, and lastly, 100% ethanol to dehydrate them. I learned the key identifications that make aedes albopictus different from other species (their pectin and comb scales). I made a microscope slide by adding euparal. On Wednesday, I evaluated the mesocosms, and the results were the same as last week! I then looked at some larvae from both buckets under the microscope in order to create voucher slides. One important thing that was found this week was that the colony that we started in the beginning of the summer has more than one type of mosquito in it. While we were looking under the scope, we found another type of larva. It was cool to see because I could actually compare a real specimen to the albopictus rather than a book, but it does cause some minor problems. We would prefer that all of the bioassays are done with aedes albopictus because it simplifies things for writing purposes, so we are going to have to be careful in the future. 

This week, we also did some colony maintenance in which we hatched new egg papers, refilled the oviposition papers, blood fed the mosquitoes, and fed the newly hatched larvae! 

Black Fly: 

One Tuesday, we treated the South Branch Raritan River for black flies! I believe we went to 8 or 9 different sites all along the river. I also went to one smaller creek this week to look for black fly pupae, but I was a little unsuccessful (found larvae but not pupae). Of course I took pictures at the black fly sites, so here is my favorite one from this week! 

In the upcoming week, I should be able to attend a field trial that is happening. I am very excited about that!! Hopefully I will be able to share what I learned there in next week’s update! I cannot believe that I am halfway through this internship. I have learned so much, and I am ready to continue this work for the second half of this summer!!