Comparative capability to detoxify vegetable allelochemicals by larval mosquitoes.

In order to confirm the phytotoxicological basis for the ecological specialization of larval culicine fauna among different subalpine mosquito breeding sites, we compared the capability of six different Aedes larval taxa or populations of different ecological origin to detoxify dietary leaf litter originating from the environmental vegetation. Detoxification experiments were performed through in vitro digestion of a toxic leaf litter fraction using larval extracts as the enzymatic sources. Comparison of toxicological and detoxifying properties among the different larval samples indicates an association between their tolerance to leaf litter toxicants and their detoxification capability, which vary according to ecological origin. The fact that the detoxifying factor within the larval extracts appears to be a protein-like compound with a molecular weight bigger than 30 kDa suggests the possible involvement of detoxifying enzymes in larval tolerance to leaf litter toxicants. This is congruent with previous biochemical data that suggests the involvement of cytochrome P450 monooxygenase and esterase activities in the detoxification process.