Small females prefer small males: Size assortative mating in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes

Abstract

Background: With Aedes aegypti mosquitoes now being released in field programmes aimed at disease suppression, there is interest in identifying factors influencing the mating and invasion success of released mosquitoes. One factor that can increase release success is size: released males may benefit competitively from being larger than their field counterparts. However, there could be a risk in releasing only large males if small field females avoid these males and instead prefer small males. Here we investigate this risk by evaluating mating success for mosquitoes differing in size. Results: We measured mating success indirectly by coupling size with Wolbachia-infected or uninfected mosquit..