As the lab has been gearing up for mosquito intensive work, this past week winded down on field work. Preparation, explanation, and identification were major themes this week. Wells Reserve, sunrise 7/2/24 Mosquito Identification Starting off, my Monday was almost exclusively focused on mosquito identification. In doing so, I was able to assist a research assistant in the lab in IDing mosquitos collected from CDC light traps. Of the mosquitos I looked at, there was a different purpose in identification then typical, reference specimen. Over time training and reference specimen used by the lab may lose distinguishable body parts including scales, legs, abdomen, and even heads. This makes it difficult to practice skills and use these mosquitos as a reference when identifying specimen to send to the state for testing. The majority of mosquitos I sorted were Coquillettidia perturbans which is a vector for West Nile virus (WNV). In the sample sorted there was 7...
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