Interspecific mating bias may drive Aedes aegypti displacement of Aedes albopictus during its range expansion

Wei-Chih Tseng(曾葦誌) 1,3, Wei-Liang Liu 2,  Kao, Chih-Fei 3 ,Chun-Hong Chen1,2

1 Institute of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli, Taiwan.

2 National Mosquito-Borne Diseases Control Research Center, National Health Research

Institutes, Miaoli, Taiwan.

3 Department of Biotechnology, National Yongming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan.

Aedes aegypti is the main carrier of dengue fever, Zika virus, and yellow fever virus, and is mainly distributed in tropical regions of the world. Aedes albopictus is the most important vector of the chikungunya virus and can also transmit the dengue virus. In addition, it is the most invasive mosquito species in the world, widely distributed in tropical, subtropical, and temperate regions.  Aedes aegypti has a similar life history and ecological environment to Aedes albopictus. Aedes aegypti was the local dominant species in Florida, USA, and Hainan, China in the 1980s, but it was found that Aedes albopictus gradually replaced Aedes aegypti as the local dominant species after the invasion. It is not clear how Aedes aegypti did. Aedes albopictus replaced Aedes aegypti. Satyryization has been suggested as a possible reason why invasive species (especially Ae) competitively displace resident mosquitoes, possibly leading to competitive displacement and possible extinction, especially of island-endemic species. In Taiwan, it was found that the activity range of Aedes aegypti in the south of the Tropic of Cancer is larger than that of Aedes albopictus.. In the species of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus In inter- and intra-species mating experiments, it was found that Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus in southern Taiwan prefer Aedes albopictus