RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WING LENGTH AND DRY-WEIGHT OF MOSQUITOS

The relationship between the wing length and dry weight of field-collected and laboratory-reared mosquitoes was analyzed using regression analysis. The species examined were Aedes albopictus, Aedes aegypti, Aedes triseriatus, Aedes vexans, Culex pipiens, and Culex restuans. Strain differences in both wing length and weight were noted for Ae. albopictus. Wing length was not a cube root function of weight. The variability of wing length determined the amount of the variation attributable to regression (r2) accounted for by the given equation for each species. No single transformation consistently resulted in a regression with the best fit. In the species and strains of female mosquitoes that were examined, wing length was less variable than weight. Consequently, small changes in wing length corresponded to proportionately greater changes in weight.