Straightforward multi-object video tracking for quantification of mosquito flight activity

Flight traits of dengue-infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes

Understanding the flight behaviour of dengue-infected mosquitoes can play a vital role in various contexts, including modelling disease risks and developing effective interventions against dengue. Studies on the locomotor activity of dengue-infected mosquitoes have often faced challenges in terms of methodology. Some studies used small tubes, which impacted the natural movement of the mosquitoes, while others that used cages did not capture the three-dimensional flights, despite mosquitoes naturally flying in three dimensions. In this study, we utilised Mask RCNN (Region-based Convolutional Neural Network) along with cubic spline interpolation to comprehensively track the three-dimensional flight behaviour of dengue-infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. This analysis considered a number of parameters as characteristics of mosquito flight, including flight duration, number of flights, Euclidean distance, flight speed, and the volume (space) covered during flights. The accuracy achieved for mosquito detection and tracking was 98.34% for flying mosquitoes and 100% for resting mosquitoes. Notably, the interpolated data accounted for only 0.31%, underscoring the reliability of the results. Flight traits results revealed that exposure to the dengue virus significantly increases the flight duration (p-value 0.0135 × 10-3) and volume (space) covered during flights (p-value 0.029) whilst decreasing the total number of flights compared to uninfected mosquitoes. The study did not observe any evident impact on the Euclidean distance (p-value 0.064) and speed (p-value 0.064) of Aedes aegypti. These results highlight the intricate relationship between dengue infection and the flight behaviour of Aedes aegypti, providing valuable insights into the virus transmission dynamics. This study focused on dengue-infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes; future research can explore the impact of other arboviruses on mosquito flight behaviour.

Three-Dimensional Tracking of Multiple Small Insects by a Single Camera

Many systems to monitor insect behavior have been developed recently. Yet most of these can only detect two-dimensional behavior for convenient analysis and exclude other activities, such as jumping or flying. Therefore, the development of a three-dimensional (3D) monitoring system is necessary to investigate the 3D behavior of insects. In such a system, multiple-camera setups are often used to accomplish this purpose. Here, a system with a single camera for tracking small insects in a 3D space is proposed, eliminating the synchronization problems that typically occur when multiple cameras are instead used. With this setup, two other images are obtained via mirrors fixed at other viewing angles. Using the proposed algorithms, the tracking accuracy of five individual drain flies, Clogmia albipunctata (Williston) (Diptera: Psychodidae), flitting about in a spherical arena (78 mm in diameter) is as high as 98.7%, whereas the accuracy of 10 individuals is 96.3%. With this proposed method, the 3D trajectory monitoring experiments of insects can be performed more efficiently.

Understanding host utilization by mosquitoes: determinants, challenges and future directions

Mosquito host utilization is a key factor in the transmission of vector-borne pathogens given that it greatly influences host-vector contact rates. Blood-feeding patterns of mosquitoes are not random, as some mosquitoes feed on particular species and/or individuals more than expected by chance. Mosquitoes use a number of cues including visual, olfactory, acoustic, and thermal stimuli emitted by vertebrate hosts to locate and identify their blood meal sources. Thus, differences in the quality/intensity of the released cues may drive host selection by mosquitoes at both inter- and intra-specific levels. Such patterns of host selection by mosquitoes in space and time can be structured by factors related to mosquitoes (e.g. innate host preference, behavioural plasticity), to hosts (e.g. emission of host-seeking cues, host availability) or to both (e.g. pathogen infection). In this study, we review current evidence, from phenomena to mechanisms, of how these factors influence host utilization by mosquitoes. We also review the methodologies commonly used in this research field and identify the major challenges for future studies. To bridge the knowledge gaps, we propose improvements to strengthen traditional approaches and the use of a functional trait-based approach to infer mosquito host utilization in natural communities.

Video Recording Can Conveniently Assay Mosquito Locomotor Activity

Anopheles gambiae and Aedes aegypti are perhaps the best studied mosquito species and important carriers of human malaria and arbovirus, respectively. Mosquitoes have daily rhythms in behaviors and show a wide range of activity patterns. Although Anopheles is known to be principally nocturnal and Aedes principally diurnal, details of mosquito activity are not easily assayed in the laboratory. We recently described FlyBox, a simple tracking system for assaying Drosophila locomotor activity rhythms and thought that it might also be applicable to monitoring mosquito activity. Indeed, we show here that FlyBox can easily, conveniently, affordably and accurately measure the activity of Anopheles as well as Aedes over several days. The resulting profiles under light-dark as well as constant darkness conditions are compatible with results in the literature, indicating that this or similar systems will be useful in the future for more detailed studies on a range of insect species and under more diverse laboratory conditions.

Automated moth flight analysis in the vicinity of artificial light

Instrumentation and software for the automated analysis of insect flight trajectories is described, intended for quantifying the behavioural dynamics of moths in the vicinity of artificial light. For its time, this moth imaging system was relatively advanced and revealed hitherto undocumented insights into moth flight behaviour. The illumination source comprised a 125 W mercury vapour light, operating in the visible and near ultraviolet wavelengths, mounted on top of a mobile telescopic mast at heights of 5 and 7.1 m, depending upon the experiment. Moths were imaged in early September, at night and in field conditions, using a ground level video camera with associated optics including a heated steering mirror, wide angle lens and an electronic image intensifier. Moth flight coordinates were recorded at a rate of 50 images per second (fields) and transferred to a computer using a light pen (the only non-automated operation in the processing sequence). Software extracted ground speed vectors and, by instantaneous subtraction of wind speed data supplied by fast-response anemometers, the airspeed vectors. Accumulated density profiles of the track data revealed that moths spend most of their time at a radius of between 40 and 50 cm from the source, and rarely fly directly above it, from close range. Furthermore, the proportion of insects caught by the trap as a proportion of the number influenced by the light (and within the field of view of the camera) was very low; of 1600 individual tracks recorded over five nights, a total of only 12 were caught. Although trap efficiency is strongly dependent on trap height, time of night, season, moonlight and weather, the data analysis confirmed that moths do not exhibit straightforward positive phototaxis. In general, trajectory patterns become more complex with reduced distance from the illumination, with higher recorded values of speeds and angular velocities. However, these characteristics are further qualified by the direction of travel of the insect; the highest accelerations tended to occur when the insect was at close range, but moving away from the source. Rather than manifesting a simple positive phototaxis, the trajectories were suggestive of disorientation. Based on the data and the complex behavioural response, mathematical models were developed that described ideal density distribution in calm air and light wind speed conditions. The models did not offer a physiological hypothesis regarding the behavioural changes, but rather were tools for quantification and prediction. Since the time that the system was developed, instrumentation, computers and software have advanced considerably, allowing much more to be achieved at a small fraction of the original cost. Nevertheless, the analytical tools remain useful for automated trajectory analysis of airborne insects.

Bionomics and insecticide resistance of the arboviral vector Aedes albopictus in northern Lao PDR

In the last four decades there has been a staggering increase in the geographical range of the arboviral vector Aedes albopictus (Skuse, 1894). This species is now found in every continent except Antarctica, increasing the distribution of arboviral diseases such as dengue and chikungunya. In Lao PDR dengue epidemics occur regularly, with cases of chikungunya also reported. As treatment methods for arboviral diseases is limited, the control of the vector mosquitoes are essential. There is a paucity of information on the bionomics and resistance status of this mosquito for successful vector control efforts. Here we describe the bionomics and insecticide resistance status of Ae. albopictus in Laos to identify opportunities for control. Adult Ae. albopictus were collected using human-baited double bed net (HDN) traps in forests, villages and rubber plantations and tested for alpha- and flaviviruses with RT-PCR. Surveys were also conducted to identify larval habitats. Seven adult and larval populations originating from Vientiane Capital and Luang Prabang province were tested against DDT, malathion, permethrin, deltamethrin and, temephos following WHO protocols. Aedes albopictus were found throughout the year, but were six-fold greater in the rainy season than the dry season. Adult females were active for 24 hours, with peak of behaviour at 18.00 h. The secondary forest and rubber plantation samples showed evidence of Pan-flaviviruses, while samples from the villages did not. More than half of the emerged Ae. albopictus were collected from mature rubber plantations (53.9%; 1,533/2,845). Most Ae. albopictus mosquitoes emerged from latex collection cups (19.7%; 562/2,845), small water containers (19.7%; 562/2,845) and tyres (17.4%; 495/2,845). Adult mosquitoes were susceptible to pyrethroids, apart from one population in Vientiane city. All populations were resistant to DDT (between 27-90% mortality) and all except one were resistant to malathion (20-86%). Three of the seven larval populations were resistant to temephos (42-87%), with suspected resistance found in three other populations (92-98%).This study demonstrates that rural areas in northern Laos are potential hot spots for arboviral disease transmission. Multiple-insecticide resistance was found. Aedes albopictus control efforts in villages need to expand to include secondary forests and rubber plantations, with larval source management and limited use of insecticides.

Laboratory evaluation of the effects of sterilizing doses of γ-rays from Caesium-137 source on the daily flight activity and flight performance of Aedes albopictus males

The control of Aedes albopictus through Sterile Male Releases requires that the most competitive males be mass-reared and sterilized usually with gamma- or X-ray radiation prior to release. Developing an understanding of the impact of irradiation treatment on flight performance in sterile males is very important because any fitness cost may reduce the efficacy of SIT intervention in the field. Here, we examined the role of irradiation exposure and sugar-feeding on daily flight activity and performance of Ae. albopictus males sterilized during pupal stage with gamma-radiation at 35Gray from a Caesium 137 source. We used a previously developed automated video tracking system to monitor the flight activity of different groups of sterile and control non-sterile males over 24 hours in a flight arena. This monitoring took place under controlled laboratory conditions and we wished to quantify the daily flight activity and to highlight any changes due to radiation treatment and nutritional conditions (starved versus sugar fed). Our experimental evidence demonstrated a characteristic diurnal flight activity with a bimodal pattern regardless of the treatment. Precisely, both irradiated and non-irradiated males exhibited two distinct peaks in flight activity in the morning (6-8 a.m.) and late afternoon (4-6 p.m.). Under changing physiological conditions, irradiated males were generally more active over time and flew longer overall distances than control male populations. These results suggest some internal circadian control of the phase relation to the light-dark cycle, with evidence for modification of flight performance by nutritional status. The fact that daily activity patterns are alike in irradiated and control Ae. albopictus males, and that sterile males could display higher flight performance, is in contrast with the hypothesis that irradiation treatment appears to reduce the fitness of male mosquitoes. We discuss the implications of the present study in sterile-male release programs against Ae. albopictus.

Locomotor activity in males of Aedes aegypti can shift in response to females' presence

BACKGROUND

The study of physiological and behavioral traits of mosquito vectors has been of growing relevance for the proposition of alternative methods for controlling vector-borne diseases. Despite this, most studies focus on the female's traits, including the behavior of host seeking, the physiology of disease transmission and the site-choice for oviposition. However, understanding the factors that lead to males' reproductive success is of utmost importance, since it can help building new strategies for constraining population growth. Male behavior towards mating varies widely among species and the communication between males and females is the first aspect securing a successful encounter. Here we used an automated monitoring system to study the profile of locomotor activity of Aedes aegypti males in response to female's presence in an adapted confinement tube. We propose a new method to quantify male response to the presence of females, which can be potentially tested as an indicator of the success of one male in recognizing a female for mating.

RESULTS

Locomotor activity varies in daily cycles regulated by an endogenous clock and synchronized by external factors, such as light and temperature. Our results show the previously described startle response to light, which is displayed as a steep morning activity peak immediately when lights are on. Activity drops during the day and begins to rise again right before evening, happening about 1.5 h earlier in males than in females. Most interestingly, males' activity shows a double peak, and the second peak is very subtle when males are alone and relatively more pronounced when females are present in the confinement tubes. The switch in the peak of activity, measured by the herein suggested Peak Matching Index (PMI), was significantly different between males with and without females.

CONCLUSIONS

The adapted monitoring system used here allowed us to quantify the response of individual males to nearby females in terms of the extent of the activity peak displacement. In this direction, we created the peak matching index (PMI), a new parameter that we anticipate could be interpreted as the inclination of males to respond to females' presence, and further tested as an indicator of the potential for finding females for mating.

Effects of low-powered RF sweep between 0.01-20 GHz on female Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes: A collective behaviour analysis

There are many products claiming to be an electronic solution towards repelling mosquitoes. Several reviews were published in debunking these claims. However, there is a lack of a systematic study on effects of electromagnetic (EM) or more specifically, radio frequency (RF) waves against mosquitoes due to the conclusions made in those years. Therefore, we attempt to establish a fundamental study on female Aedes Aegypti (Linnaeus) mosquitoes by quantifying the collective behavior of the mosquitoes against a continuous stream of low-powered RF signals via a broadband horn antenna using image processing methods. By examining the average lateral and vertical positions of the mosquitoes versus frequency and time, the data shows negligible consistency in the reactions of the mosquitoes toward the different frequencies ranging from 10 to 20,000.00 MHz, with a step of 10 MHz. This was done by examining 33 hours of spatiotemporal data, which was divided into three sessions. All three sessions showed totally different convolutions in the positions in arbitrary units based on the raster scan of the image processing output. Several frequencies apparently showed up to 0.2–70% shift in both lateral and vertical components along the spectrum, without repeatability for all three sessions. This study contributes to the following: A pilot study for establishing the collective effects of RF against mosquitoes, open-source use, and finally a low-cost and easily adaptable platform for the study of EM effects against any insects.

Collective behavior quantification on human odor effects against female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes-Open source development

Classifying and quantifying mosquito activity includes a plethora of categories, ranging from measuring flight speeds, repellency, feeding rates, and specific behaviors such as home entry, swooping and resting, among others. Entomologists have been progressing more toward using machine vision for efficiency for this endeavor. Digital methods have been used to study the behavior of insects in labs, for instance via three-dimensional tracking with specialized cameras to observe the reaction of mosquitoes towards human odor, heat and CO₂, although virtually none was reported for several important fields, such as repellency studies which have a significant need for a proper response quantification. However, tracking mosquitoes individually is a challenge and only limited number of specimens can be studied. Although tracking large numbers of individual insects is hailed as one of the characteristics of an ideal automated image-based tracking system especially in 3D, it also is a costly method, often requiring specialized hardware and limited access to the algorithms used for mapping the specimens. The method proposed contributes towards (a) unlimited open source use, (b) a low-cost setup, (c) complete guide for any entomologist to adapt in terms of hardware and software, (d) simple to use, and (e) a lightweight data output for collective behavior analysis of mosquitoes. The setup is demonstrated by testing a simple response of mosquitoes in the presence of human odor versus control, one session with continuous human presence as a stimuli and the other with periodic presence. A group of female Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus) mosquitoes are released into a white-background chamber with a transparent acrylic panel on one side. The video feed of the mosquitoes are processed using filtered contours in a threshold-adjustable video. The mosquitoes in the chamber are mapped on the raster where the coordinates of each mosquito are recorded with the corresponding timestamp. The average distance of the blobs within the frames against time forms a spectra where behavioral patterns can be observed directly, whether any collective effect is observed. With this method, 3D tracking will not be required and a more straightforward data output can be obtained.

3D Holographic Observatory for Long-term Monitoring of Complex Behaviors in Drosophila

Drosophila is an excellent model organism towards understanding the cognitive function, aging and neurodegeneration in humans. The effects of aging and other long-term dynamics on the behavior serve as important biomarkers in identifying such changes to the brain. In this regard, we are presenting a new imaging technique for lifetime monitoring of Drosophila in 3D at spatial and temporal resolutions capable of resolving the motion of limbs and wings using holographic principles. The developed system is capable of monitoring and extracting various behavioral parameters, such as ethograms and spatial distributions, from a group of flies simultaneously. This technique can image complicated leg and wing motions of flies at a resolution, which allows capturing specific landing responses from the same data set. Overall, this system provides a unique opportunity for high throughput screenings of behavioral changes in 3D over a long term in Drosophila.

The impact of insecticide-treated cloth targets on the survival of Stegomyia polynesiensis (= Aedes polynesiensis) under laboratory and semi-field conditions in French Polynesia

The impact of deltamethrin-impregnated cloth targets on Stegomyia polynesiensis (= Aedes polynesiensis) (Marks) (Diptera: Culicidae) was assessed under laboratory and semi-field settings in French Polynesia. Stegomyia polynesiensis females were released into small laboratory cages and large field cages containing either a deltamethrin-treated or an untreated navy blue cloth, and mosquito knock-down and mortality were assessed. The 24-h mortality rate in mosquitoes exposed to the insecticide-treated target in small cages was 98.0%. These mosquitoes also demonstrated significantly higher levels of knock-down than those exposed to the untreated target. Mortality in field cages was assessed at 24 and 48 h. The 24-h mortality rate in mosquitoes exposed to the control target was 31.2%, whereas that in those exposed to the deltamethrin-treated target was 54.3%. The 48-h mortality rate was also elevated in mosquitoes exposed to the deltamethrin-treated target, but this result did not differ significantly from that observed in mosquitoes exposed to the control target. The significant suppression of female S. polynesiensis by deltamethrin-treated resting targets in this study indicates that these targets could play a role in the control of an important disease vector in the South Pacific region.

Seasonal variation in size estimates of Aedes albopictus population based on standard mark-release-recapture experiments in an urban area on Reunion Island

The implementation of the sterile insect technique for area-wide vector control requires that natural population density be accurately estimated to determine both the appropriate time to treat and the adequate number of sterile males for release. Herein, we used mark-release-recapture (MRR) to derive seasonal abundance estimates of Aedes albopictus population sizes within a delimited geographical area in Reunion Island. Population size of Ae. albopictus was estimated through four mark-release-recapture experiments carried out separately in different seasons. Marked males and females were released each time, and recaptured using BG sentinel traps for six consecutive days. Data were used to estimate the population size using a conceptual model that incorporates the variation in daily mortality rates. The likely influence of environmental factors on the magnitude of catches and on population fluctuation was analyzed. A total of 2827 mosquitoes (1914 males and 913 females) were marked and released on four occasions during dry and wet seasons. After release, 138 males (7.21%) and 86 females (9.41%) of the marked specimens were recaptured in subsequent samplings. The effectiveness of the daily captures of wild and released mosquitoes was significantly influenced by meteorological conditions such as temperature, rainfall, wind speed and light intensity. The estimates of Ae. albopictus population size obtained with our model estimator ranged from 298 to 1238 males and 604 to 2208 females per ha, with seasonal variability - higher population size in the humid season. The presented results will be essential in designing more effective sterile male release strategies for long-term suppression of wild Ae. albopictus populations.