Reproductive Interference Betweenaedes Albopictusandaedes Flavopictusat A Place Of Their Origin

Aedes(Stegomyia)albopictusandAedes(Stegomyia)flavopictusare related species that have overlapping distributions from southern to central Japan. To understand how they interact, we studied reproductive interference between them, particularly focusing on the body size difference between the mating pair. Here, we examined the effects of conspecific, heterospecific and double mating (i.e. heterospecific mating followed by conspecific mating) on copulation duration, egg production and hatchability of eggs using mosquitoes that varied in body size. Females mated only with heterospecific males produced few viable eggs, indicating that post-mating isolation is almost complete. When mated with heterospecific males before conspecific mating, the production of viable eggs was lower than when mated only with conspecific males, revealing the occurrence of reproductive interference. The degree of reproductive interference was larger inAe. flavopictusthan inAe. albopictuswhen the female size was small but did not differ between them when the female size was large.Aedes albopictusfemales appear to be able to distinguishAe. flavopictusmales from conspecific males and larger females are more successful in the rejection of heterospecific males. On the other hand,Ae. flavopictuswere not able to discriminate between conspecific and heterospecific males.