Transcript
TOM SWAN: Mosquito larvae have what's called cone scales which is small hairlike features on the anterior aspect of the body right down the bottom of the body which you can use as an identification skill and by drawing these it was a lot easier to visualise for not only the scientist looking at the mosquito larvae under the mosquito under the microscope but also for the key itself, so more a visualisation tool.
DANIELA MAOATE-COX: I would have thought that all mosquitoes are bad and I would try to eradicate all of them so are some worse than others?
TOM SWAN: Yeah so there's over 3,600 mosquito species globally and not all mosquitoes are treated equally so some mosquitoes don't even bite people, others do bite people and they're the more famous notorious mosquitoes we've been hearing about in the news with respect to recently, Zika virus in South America and also expanding throughout the Pacific and also into North America. Those mosquitoes that have been spreading that are called aedes aegypti which is what was traditionally known as the yellow fever mosquito and aedes albopictus which is known as the asian tiger mosquito so those two mosquitoes are notorious for being able to spread Zika, dengue, chikungunya viruses.
DANIELA MAOATE-COX: Those diseases are becoming a major problem for many countries in the Pacific so will this key help people identify the larvae that those mosquitoes come from?
TOM SWAN: Yes that's correct, so also in my Masters I did a survey of Tongatapu island group, quite an extensive survey over a period of a month where I collected mosquito larvae all throughout the main island in artificial habitats including buckets, tires, plastic containers, which surprisingly mosquito larvae are most commonly found in but also in pools and ponds throughout the island which mosquito larvae are also found in and both aedes aegypti and aedes albopictus we found occur in widespread distribution throughout the main island which is worrying because they have had reportedly outbreaks of dengue, chikungunya, and now Zika virus in the last few years within Tonga and also other countries throughout the South Pacific.
DANIELA MAOATE-COX: So having this key published is going to be really helpful, who's going to be able to use it? Who can access this?
TOM SWAN: Well I think it will be really helpful to aid entomologists and people who work at the ministry of health to be able to identify these important vectors of disease, the larvae that is. Who's going to be able to access it? Well it's published within the New Zealand entomologist so people having a subscription to that journal can access it.
DANIELA MAOATE-COX: I guess the general public wouldn't really be able to identify mosquito larvae, they know the bug, once it bites you especially.
TOM SWAN: Yeah so interestingly when I was in Tonga which was rather disconcerting, a lot of people didn't realise that the mosquito larvae which is called 'ikeikaavai in Tongan, evolved and metamorphosed into the adult, the namu mosquito, namu being mosquito in Tongan. And that the namu was what bit you and was capable of spreading diseases so that was a part of my time there was actually educating individuals about this occurrence.
