Insect population dynamics depend strongly on environmental factors. For floodwater mosquitoes, meteorological conditions are crucial in the rhythm of mosquito abundances. Indeed, rainfall triggers the egg hatching after flooding breeding sites, and temperature controls the duration of the aquatic immature development up to adult emergence.

According to this, we have developed a simple mechanistic and tractable model that describes the population dynamics of floodwater mosquitoes as a function only of the most accessible meteorological variables, rainfall and temperature. The model involves three parameters: development duration tdev of the immature aquatic stages, the adult emergence rate function f(t) (characterized by the emergence time scale τ and shaping the profile of adult population abundance), and the depletion rate, α, of adult disappearance.

The developed model was subsequently applied to fit experimental field data of the dynamics of Aedes caspius (Pallas), the main pest mosquito in southern France. First, it was found that the emergence rate function of adult mosquitoes very well reproduce experimental data of the dynamics of immature development for all sampled temperatures. The estimated values of tdev and τ both exhibit Arrhenius behaviour as a function of temperature. Second, using the meteorological records of rainfall and temperature as inputs, the model correctly fit data from a two-site CO2 trapping survey conducted in 2004 and 2005. The estimated depletion rates (summation of the mortality and the emigration rates) were found to be a concave quadratic function of temperature with a maximum of 0.5 per days at about 22°C.

The larval survival and development times of Aedes caspius (Diptera: Culicidae) were examined in the laboratory. These life history traits were estimated using life tables constructed for two populations, one of which had been subjected to a long-term larvicide control program. Traits were evaluated for eight different population densities. The effects of population, larval stage and larval density were investigated using a general linear model. Density was positively correlated with larval survival but did not affect development time. The fourth instar and pupae had the lowest larval survival rates. First and fourth instar larvae had the longest development times. These traits were not significantly different between the two populations. The effect of larvicide control on these traits is discussed.

Entomological investigations in Dubai showed that, irrespective of whether they had been fed on water or 10% sugar solution, about 47% of Aedes caspius females matured eggs autogenously during their first ovarian cycle. Several blood-fed females were trapped in cages, and precipitin tests showed that some had fed on birds and camels as well as man.

Absence of autogeny combined with an examination of male terminalia showed that adults of the Culex pipiens complex were in fact Culex quinquefasciatus. The population was unusual because females were not inseminated when kept in cages, and appeared only weakly anthropophagie. CDC light traps and out of door resting cages proved useful in sampling adults. Precipitin tests showed 31.7% to have fed on birds, 7.9% on camels and only 3.2% on humans.

The number of eggs matured by Ae. caspius and Cx. quinquefasciatus were determined, and studies were made on the hatching pattern of Ae. caspius eggs. Larval habitats of Ae. caspius were unusual in having high concentrations of calcium chloride. Breeding places of Cx. quinquefasciatus comprised very polluted waters. Collections of the immature stages allowed the construction of stage-specific age-frequency histograms for both species, and survivorship curves to be plotted.