Exotic and Endemic Mosquitoes in New Zealand as Potential Arbovirus Vectors

Exotic and Endemic Mosquitoes in New Zealand as Potential Arbovirus Vectors

Date of publication: April 1997

Three accidentally imported mosquito species, now established in New Zealand, are potential arbovirus vectors.

Culex quinquefasciatus, native to warmer parts of the Americas, was collected here prior to 1848. The water supplies of American whaling vessels that made heavy use of the Bay of Islands in the mid-1830s were the likely source, Australia’s stock doubtless being similarly derived.

Predominantly a utiliser of polluted surface-water larval habitats, its immature stages also abound in a wide range of artificial containers, from gully traps in stormwater drains through discarded water barrels and drums to used tyres. When shaded, such containers also harbour Aedes notoscriptus, originally a natural container utiliser from rock pools to tree holes and leaf axils.

First collected in Auckland in 1916, this species had initially been described from Sydney, New South Wales, in 1889. It has since been reported from all Australian states (although rarely in Tasmania), as well as from much of Melanesia, Polynesia and Indonesia’s Moluccas.

There is evidence of recent dispersal of both mosquitoes from their original entry points in the northern North Island southwards, with a 1930 report of the presence of both in Nelson (in the relatively mild north-east of the South Island). Stewart Island and the southernmost parts of the South Island were the first areas from which Aedes australis was collected in New Zealand just over three decades ago. It has since shown northward dispersal as far as Timaru.

All three species could possibly transmit Ross River virus in New Zealand. A. notoscriptus and A. australis are potential vectors of dengue fever too, and C. quinquefasciatus is a possible vector of encephalitis viruses. A simplified larval key to the mosquitoes of New Zealand is provided on page 9.

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