Mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) species richness and abundance across a treeheight gradient: does adding CO2 enhance the BG-Lure?

Abstract

Here we compare mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) samples collected with BG-Pro traps set on alternate days with the BG-Lure (BGL) and the BG-Lure plus CO2 (BGL+CO2 ) across a tree height gradient using a fire tower in the Hoosier National Forest in Southwestern Indiana, USA. With both methods, we collected similar numbers (± SE) of mosquitoes (BGL = 1.14 ± 1.79 and BGL+CO2 = 1.17 ± 2.56) per sampling effort unit. However, richness increased by three species when adding CO2. These preliminary results suggest that adding CO2 might increase the species richness of collected samples and are encouraging to pursue more detailed trials to compare the two treatments for collecting mosquitoes, considering the similar number of collected mosquitoes despite the shorter time (16 hours as opposed to 24 used in the traps with BGL only) of operation for traps where CO2 was added.