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Oviposition responses of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus to certain fatty acid esters

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Abstract

Laboratory studies were carried out to observe the oviposition responses of Aedes aegypti (L.) and Aedes albopictus (Skuse) to several C21 fatty acid esters. The oviposition activity of these dengue and chikungunya vectors to the long-chain fatty acid esters of C21 length have not been reported earlier. From the multiple choice experiments on oviposition activity in standard mosquito cages, it was observed that compounds hexadecyl pentanoate, tetradecyl heptanoate and tridecyl octanoate presented significant oviposition repellent activity against the two mosquito species, while one compound propyl octadecanoate was found to attract A. aegypti to the treated oviposition substrate at 1- and 10-ppm concentrations. The possible utilization of these esters in integrated vector management is discussed.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. R. Vijayaraghavan, Director, Defence Research and Development Establishment for his help in statistical analysis and encouragement during this investigation. Also our thanks to all members of Entomology Division for their help in maintaining the mosquito culture for bio-evaluation. We sincerely acknowledge the technical guidance of Scientists of NMR and IR Spectroscopy facility in characterization of compounds. This work is funded by the DRDE-181 project of our Establishment.

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Correspondence to T. Seenivasagan.

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Sharma, K.R., Seenivasagan, T., Rao, A.N. et al. Oviposition responses of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus to certain fatty acid esters. Parasitol Res 103, 1065–1073 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-008-1094-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-008-1094-1

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