16 - Lightning talk: Continent-wide patterns of mosquito diversity.

Abstract: There are around 180 species of mosquitoes described from the continental US. In this lightning talk, I will describe the patterns of diversity, factors that might contribute to that diversity, and implications of diversity for the future of pathogen transmission and mosquito control, based upon data form the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). We have found diversity in the continental United States to follow predictable patterns of response to elevation and latitude, but this disappears when data from Alaska are included. We find geographic distance to be a good predictor of similarity between mosquito assemblages, while local land-use is not. We have also found that association between a known larval community--treehole species--is marginally supported by our data. We also describe the distribution and abundance of common pest and vector species that are important targets of mosquito control, as well as continent level phenological estimates of mosquito activity that might be useful in determining when to provide different types of control.