Aedes (Hulecoeteomyia) koreicus (Edwards) and Aedes (Stegomyia) albopictus (Skuse) are two invasive
mosquito species well established in northeastern Italy, and these two species may co-occur in artificial larval
habitats such as tires, buckets, drums, and catch basins. Because Ae. albopictus has been shown experimentally
to be a superior competitor to several mosquito species, we investigated larval competition between
Ae. koreicus and Ae. albopictus using two diet levels (low level and high level) and 10 Ae. albopictus: Ae. koreicus
density combination levels (30:0, 60:0, 15:15, 30:30, 10:20, 20:10, 20:40, 40:20, 0:60, and 0:30). A multivariate
analysis (MANOVA) demonstrated a significant effect of the density combination on Ae. koreicus survivorship,
female development time, and female wing length considered simultaneously in low-level diet and high-level
diet treatments. Pairwise comparisons across low-level diet treatments showed a significant reduction of Ae.
koreicus survivorship in 20:10 combination treatments (i.e. 20 Ae. albopictus and 10 Ae. koreicus larvae) compared
to 10:20, 20:40, and 30:30 combination treatments, while no difference was detected for Ae. albopictus
between density combination treatments. Furthermore, Ae. albopictus developed faster than Ae. koreicus regardless
of diet and density combination treatments. Our results show weak larval competition between
Ae. koreicus and Ae. albopictus with a slight advantage of the latter species. On the other hand, the presence of
Ae. albopictus seems to favor the emergence of larger Ae. koreicus females. We suggest that factors such as
habitats preferences or seasonal distributions may be determinant for the invasion success of Ae. koreicus
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