Posted by Jacqueline Beggs

Distinguished Professor Phil Lounibos (Florida Medical Entomology Lab, University of Florida) visits the University of Auckland in March 2015 and will present a Centre for Biodiversity and Biosecurity seminar on 25 March, 12:30pm, Tāmaki Campus, Building 733, Room 234. All welcome.  Prof Lounibos completed his PhD at Harvard University on silkworm behavior. His interest in insect ecology and behavior flourished in a career focussed particularly on mosquito vectors of human diseases, such as malaria and dengue. 

Anopheles darlingi Photo: Phil Lounibos

Seminar synopsis:
Select mosquito species, especially those adapted to human habitats, have invaded globally, facilitating the spread of pathogens that they may transmit. In recent decades the Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, has been an especially effective invader, its establishments and spread in new regions enhanced by competitive displacements of resident mosquito species that occupy a similar niche. This seminar will discuss recent research that identifies asymmetric reproductive competition, a.k.a. satyrization, as the probable mechanism leading to displacements of resident Aedes aegypti in the southeastern USA and elsewhere, by A. albopictus. Invasions and displacements by these two species, the foremost vectors of dengue and chikungunya viruses to humans, have potential public health consequences.