Description
Data was collected on the Rockefeller strain (MR-734, MR4, ATCC®, Manassas, VA, USA) of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Two experiments were conducted. The first one involved tracking development through each aquatic stage under low and high-density conditions. The other experiment involved tracking total development time (from egg hatch until emergence and not by individual aquatic stages) and mass upon emergence under low and high-density conditions. We will refer to these datasets as the mass data and the former as the stage data.
Larvae were reared in densities of 26 and 78 per 300 ml of nutrient medium to simulate ‘low’ and ‘high’ intraspecific competition. Larval densities are manipulated to vary per capita nutrition available in the two treatments, and these values are comparable with larval densities in natural habitats.
The stock larval nutrient medium was prepared at 3.3 mg/mL using standard fish food (Hikari Tropic First Bites, Petco, San Diego, CA, USA), incubated at 26ᵒC for 24 hours, and used to prepare 12.5% stock dilution. Eggs were synchronously hatched in DI water using a vacuum chamber and transferred to 300 ml of nutrient medium stock dilutions. Freshly hatched mosquito larvae in 12.5% dilution of the nutrient broth were housed in an incubator at 26ᵒC and 80% relative humidity with a 14:10 h day-night cycle. Mosquito larvae were monitored every 6 hours until pupation. Upon pupation, they were transferred to individually labeled vials containing water and monitored until emergence using a locomotor activity monitor (Trikinetics, LAM25). The LAM25 software recorded the activity just above the water surface at repeated 60 s intervals to detect and record emerging mosquitoes.
For the experiment tracking larval development, we recorded larval development time and proportion surviving through every stage of metamorphosis (four larval instars, pupa, and adult) until emergence. Upon emergence, adult mosquitoes were sexed. This experiment included five replicates per low- and high-density treatment. For the other experiment tracking body mass, data on only adult female mosquitoes were considered. Females were weighed upon emergence, and their total development time was recorded. This experiment included 13 and 8 replicates for the low- and high-density treatments, respectively.
In addition to the above data, two replicates in the low-density treatment were included to quantify mosquito survival. These two replicates do not include data on development time, and only numbers of male and female mosquitoes at emergence were quantified. Therefore, the dataset on mosquito survival consisted of 20 replicates and 13 replicates in the low- and high-density treatments, respectively.