Larvae of several mosquito species being vectors of infectious diseases as adults feed on algae in their natural habitat. Algal food comes along with bioactive compounds providing important chemical defenses against predators, competitors, and pathogens. Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus in Hasselquist, 1762) is commonly called yellow fever mosquito, being a vector of several fatal diseases such as dengue fever, zika fever, chikungunya, and yellow fever. In this study, we have investigated the susceptibility of larvae of A. aegypti mosquitos to three most commonly studied diatom aldehydes-2-trans, 4-trans heptadienal (HD), 2-trans, 4-trans octadienal (OD), and 2-trans, 4-trans-decadienal (DD). In the experiments, instar-I and -IV larvae of Ae. aegypti were exposed to above PUAs for different time intervals. Both mosquito instars were susceptible to HD, OD and DD. Instar-I larvae were more susceptible compared to instar-IV. The percentage of mortality of both instar larvae was higher with greater concentrations of each tested PUA. Furthermore, mosquito larvae, tested on DD applied medium was estimated to be more susceptible followed by OD and then by HD. After 24 h observation, LC 50 value was the lowest for DD (0.64 μL/40mL), followed by OD (0.88 μL/40mL) and HD (1.47 μL/40mL) respectively. In current scenarios, our results suggest that natural aldehydes from diatoms could provide promising public health benefits by controlling mosquito vector populations. Furthermore, an in-depth study of the interaction between primary producers and mosquito immatures in nature could provide several advancements in vector control research and management.
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