In like a lion or a lamb? Comparison of the competitive ability of a new mosquito invader, Culex coronator, to dominant resident container species

Culex coronator (CC) has undergone rapid range expansion since 2002, with its historical distribution in the southwestern U.S. expanding eastward to the Atlantic coast. Although CC nominally uses small natural aquatic habitats for reproduction, the use of containers (e.g., tires) in its native range and elsewhere makes it potentially important as a tire invasive. To determine the potential ecological effects of CC on resident species we conducted a laboratory experiment to assess the competitive ability of CC with the two most common tire-inhabiting species in Mississippi, Aedes albopictus (AA) and Culex quinquefasciatus (CQ). We grew larvae under a factorial design with each species alone (CC, AA, CQ) and in combination (CC+AA, CC+AQ) across three different resource environments (leaf detritus only, animal detritus only, and a mixture of types). We then assessed mosquito performance via survival and adult female mass and development time of each species across treatments. When grown alone, female CC developed fastest in treatment levels that contained animal detritus alone or in combination with leaves, but development became longer when in combination with AA in animal only environments. There were no differences in performance across detritus environments for CC when grown with CQ, nor did CQ vary in mass or development times with CC compared to when grown alone. Adding CC to AA did result in a 14% decrease in mass of female AA. Survival for CC was affected by both detritus type (lowest in leaves compared to animal) and species combination (lowest with AA compared to alone or with CQ). These finding suggest that Cx. coronator may be ecologically equivalent to Cx. quinquefasciatus, but its suffers in the presence of Ae. albopictus in some resource environments. We suggest that the establishment of Cx. coronator is possible if the proclivity of this species to use container habitats continues.