Mosquito and bacterial diversity in Phytotelmata in northern Taiwan

Mosquitoes such as the disease-vectoring genusAedeslay their eggs in containers of stagnant water. Some species prefer plant containers, or phytotelmata. We tested the hypothesis that bacteria inside these containers, which are known from experiments to affect mosquito oviposition choices, correlate with insect presence or absence in the field. We sampled natural containers from two localities in northern Taiwan: the Fushan Botanical Garden (Yilan County) and the Cherry Blossom Lane of Pingjing Street (Taipei City), the latter thrice over two years. In addition to identifying mosquito larvae, we performed culturing-enriched molecular profiling of the total bacterial communities in the container waters and the larva themselves. Phytotelmata mosquito diversity and microbial diversity were low (less than five species of either) and differed over time. In this study, the presence of mosquitoes, including medically significant genera, did not seem to correlate with bacterial communities or plant species. Both mosquito and microbe communities in these containers vary too greatly with time and on a microgeographic scale to identify specific microbe-insect interactions using metabarcoding. Research should focus on single-species experiments with cultured microbes, or long-term field studies covering all seasons.