Behavioral thermoregulation
Mosquito behavioral avoidance of high temperatures, particularly to
short-term temperature extremes, can temporarily enable persistence in
warming habitats. Several studies have shown shifts in the biting time
or habitat selection of mosquitoes, particularly An. gambiae ,
seasonally or in response to insecticide spraying (Taylor 1975, Reisen
and Aslamkhan 1978, Voorham 2002, Pates and Curtis 2005, Manda et al.
2011). While such behavioral shifts have not been conclusively linked to
temperature, studies have found increasing usage of underground or
shaded oviposition sites that was correlated with increasing
temperature, and not associated with change in habitat availability or
accompanied by genetic differentiation (Ae. aegypti , Somers et
al. 2011, Chadee and Martinez 2016). Seeking out and accessing cooler
microclimates may buffer mosquitoes from warm temperature extremes,
reducing mortality and decreasing the strength of selection. However,
evidence for mosquito behavioral thermoregulation more generally remains
limited (Paaijmans and Thomas 2011, Waldock et al. 2013), and trade-offs
in resource acquisition from restricted foraging and activity time, and
a lack of readily available cooler microhabitats would constrain this
behavior (Angilletta 2009, Sears et al. 2016, Huey and Kingsolver 2019).
Conversely, the absence of evidence for this phenomenon may be due to
measurement challenges associated with observing mosquitoes in the field
(Paaijmans and Thomas 2011).