Some observations on overwintering sites of adult Culex quinquefasciatus (Diptera: Culicidae) and strategies followed under natural and seminatural conditions.

Field population of adult Culex quinquefasciatus Say, landed in December, congregated and overwintered in indoor artificial sites in Delhi. Repeated sampling strategy by individually collecting the adults was adopted to study their overwintering strategies for 4 years (December to April). They remained vagile and readily repopulated the resting sites after the removal of samples. A large percentage of females was fertile, unfed and nulliparous indicating that reproduction ceased in them. Adult survival was significantly prolonged to a maximum of 3 months under natural conditions. Gonotrophic cycle also got prolonged. Close to quitting, they became gravid and left in April without oviposition. No adults were observed on the sites for the rest of the year. Oviposition was induced in the blood-engorged females when provided with food, water and outdoor conditions. Oviposition might have been induced directly by water and food provided them energy under seminatural conditions. Eggs were laid singly or in the form of rafts, and the number in both the cases was low. Singly laid eggs did not hatch, and in rafts, hatching was ~80 %. Winter conditions seemed to strongly impact fertility, blood feeding, fecundity, oviposition behaviour, egg hatchability and longevity. Use of the overwintering sites as biological tool, as a part of environmental control in IPM, is suggested for organising antivector measures during winter. There is a need of exploring and creating more sites of this kind.