A comparative study on insemination dependency of circadian activity pattern in mosquitoes

Abstract. Two forms of mosquitoes in the Culex pipiens complex, C.p.pallens and C.p.molestus, were compared for the insemination‐dependency of entrained female circadian activity in LD 16:8h. When virgin, Pallens is nocturnal and molestus is, in addition, diurnal. Insemination and injection of extracts of the male accessory gland affects virgin activity in that nocturnality is strengthened in both mosquitoes, and the diurnal activity of molestus is depressed. This was so whether the treatments were intra‐ or interspecific. These findings are compared with those already published for other mosquitoes. A coherent view is proposed that the mosquito, nocturnal/crepuscular, nocturnal and diurnal, or diurnal, has potentially a similar entrained waveform which is affected by insemination in a common way, and by lighting conditions in species specific ways.