An improved method for detecting substrate preferences shown by mosquitoes that exhibit 'skip oviposition'

Abstract. A new method is described for detecting and characterizing ovi-position-substrate preferences among insects (e.g. Aedes aegypti ) that customarily disperse the eggs of a single batch among several sites (i.e. that exhibit 'skip oviposition'). The method entails recording the distribution of eggs by individual females provided initially with an array of identical sites, thus eliminating possible effects of position preference and female density, and then placing one test site into the array. A preferred substrate can be identified promptly in this way without having to count eggs.