Aedes albopictus colonies from different geographic origins differ in their sleep and activity levels but not in the time of peak activity

Abstract

Mosquitoes occupy a wide range of habitats where they experience various environmental conditions. The ability of some species, such as the tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, to adapt to local conditions certainly contributes to their invasive success. Among traits that remain to be examined, mosquitoes' ability to time their activity with that of the local host population has been suggested to be of significant epidemiological importance. However, whether different populations display heritable differences in their chronotype has not been examined. Here, we compared laboratory strains originating from eight populations from three continents, monitored their spontaneous locomotor activity patterns and analysed their sleep-like states. Overall, all strains showed conserved diurnal activity concentrated in the hours preceding the crepuscule. Similarly, they all showed increased sleep levels during the morning and night hours. However, we observed strain-specific differences in the activity levels at each phase of the day. We also observed differences in the fraction of time that each strain spends in a sleep-like state, explained by variations in the sleep architecture across strains. Human population density and the latitude of the site of the geographic origin of the tested strain showed significant effects on sleep and activity patterns. Altogether, these results suggest that Ae. albopictus mosquitoes adapt to local environmental conditions via heritable adaptations of their chronotype.

Keywords: Aedes albopictus; activity patterns; disease vector insects; intra‐specific variability; mosquitoes; sleep patterns.