Abstract
An ovi-trap survey was conducted to examine seasonal changes in dorsal scale pattern of Aedes aegypti in a densely populated area in Surabaya, Indonesia in 2000. Twenty ovi-traps were placed for 10 days indoors and outdoors in March, April, May, July, August and October 2000. Larvae and eggs appearing in the ovi-traps were carried to the laboratory and reared to adults. The dorsal pattern of adults was classified into 7 scale pattern classes based on the number of abdominal segments with scattered pale scales (CKM-method), and seasonal changes in the composition of the scale pattern classes were analyzed. The seasonal change in the composition of scale pattern class and the difference in the composition between indoor and outdoor mosquitoes was significant for both females and males. The proportion of the lightest form (the scale pattern class 7, Ae. aegypti var. queenslandensis) ranged from 12 to 47% in females and changed negatively with that of the darkest form (the scale pattern class 1). The composition of the scale pattern class 7 in the indoor sample was significantly higher than that of the outdoor sample in females. An artificial selection for increasing or decreasing white scaling on abdominal tergites was conducted in the laboratory, and one light- and one dark-Surabaya strain were successfully established within 10 generations of the selection.
