Both consumptive and non-consumptive effects of predators impact mosquito populations and have implications for disease transmission
Figures
Figure 1

Flowchart demonstrating the literature search, screening process, data exclusions, and the resulting seven different vector trait data subsets.
Figure 2

Mosquito predator classes (bold font) and families (italicized font) included in the database and the vector traits that they may influence (in parentheses); predator images not to scale, and placed randomly with respect to the different mosquito life stages.
Image sources: phylopic.org (CC BY 3.0 or public domain): Actinopterygii (creator: Milton Tan), Arachnida (creators: Sidney Frederic Harmer & Arthur Everett Shipley, vectorized by Maxime Dahirel), Branchiopoda (creator: Africa Gomez), and Insecta (creator: Marie Russell). BioRender.com: Amphibia, Hexanauplia, and Malacostraca class silhouettes; mosquito larval instars, pupa, and blood-feeding adult. Trishna Desai: mosquito egg raft.
Figure 3

Effect sizes and 95 % confidence intervals for consumptive effects of predators, for different categories of moderators (with number of studies in parentheses).
(a) predator family with predator class in the right-hand column, (b) vector genus, and (c) larval instar.
Tables
Table 1
Variables extracted from included studies.
Variable | Description |
---|---|
Publication data: | |
Title | Full study title |
Journal | Name of journal that published the study |
Year | Year of publication |
Study environment | Environment where the experiment took place: lab or semi-field |
Vector data: | |
Order, Family, Genus, Species | Taxonomic identification |
Trait | Outcome that was measured (e.g. survival, development, etc.) |
Stage | Life stage: egg, larva, pupa, or adult |
Larval instar | Early (1st and 2nd instars), late (3rd and 4th instars), both, or NA (eggs, pupae, or adults) |
Sex | Male or female |
Predator data: | |
Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species | Taxonomic identification |
Starved | Whether the predator was starved: yes or no |
Time starved | Amount of time that the predator was starved (in minutes) |
Predation effect | Consumptive or non-consumptive |
Effect size data: | |
Units | Units of extracted data |
Control mean | Average of the outcome measured among the controls |
Control standard deviation | Standard deviation of the outcome measured in the controls |
Control number of replicates | Number of control replicates |
Predation mean | Average of the outcome measured in the predator treatment |
Predation standard deviation | Standard deviation of the outcome measured in the predator treatment |
Predation number of replicates | Number of predation replicates |
Experiment ID | Alphabetic assignment to mark observations sharing a control group or representing the same prey individuals as originating from the same experiment |
Additional data: | |
Experiment time (days) | Duration of the experiment in days |
Data source | Graph or text |
Number of predators | Number of predators with access to prey, or ‘cue’ if there are no predators with direct access to prey |
Number of prey (vectors) | Number of mosquito prey that are exposed to predation |
Arena volume (mL) | Volume of the arena where prey encounter predators |
Time exposed to predator(s) | Amount of time (in days) when the predator has direct access to the mosquito prey |
Temperature (°C) | Temperature during the predation interaction |
Type of predator cue | Predator cues, or cues from both predator(s) and dying conspecifics; NA for observations with a consumptive predation effect |
Table 2
Candidate multilevel mixed effects models of consumptive effects from predators on mosquito survival, fitted to dataset of effect sizes (n = 187 from 34 studies), and ranked by corrected Akaike’s information criterion (AICc).
Moderator(s) | Test of moderators(degrees of freedom, p-value) | AICc | ΔAICc |
---|---|---|---|
Predator family x vector genus | 28, < 0.0001 | 500.5 | 0 |
Predator family | 19, < 0.0001 | 507.0 | 6.5 |
Predator family + vector genus | 23, < 0.0001 | 508.1 | 7.6 |
Vector genus | 5, < 0.0001 | 573.0 | 72.5 |
None | ---- | 576.5 | 76.0 |
Table 3
Candidate multilevel mixed effects models of consumptive effects from predators, fitted to dataset of effect sizes where larval instar is not missing (n = 163 from 30 studies), and ranked by corrected Akaike’s information criterion (AICc).
Moderator(s) | Test of moderators(degrees of freedom, p-value) | AICc | ΔAICc |
---|---|---|---|
Predator family x larval instar | 25, < 0.0001 | 429.2 | 0 |
Predator family + larval instar | 19, < 0.0001 | 443.5 | 14.3 |
Predator family x vector genus | 25, < 0.0001 | 455.0 | 25.8 |
Predator family | 17, < 0.0001 | 456.8 | 27.6 |
Predator family + vector genus | 21, < 0.0001 | 458.4 | 29.2 |
Larval instar | 3, < 0.0001 | 503.1 | 73.9 |
Vector genus | 5, < 0.0001 | 504.7 | 75.5 |
None | ---- | 508.5 | 79.3 |
Table 4
Candidate multilevel mixed effects models of non-consumptive effects of predators on mosquito oviposition behavior, fitted to dataset of effect sizes (n = 36 from 12 studies), and ranked by corrected Akaike’s information criterion (AICc).
Moderator(s) | Test of moderators(degrees of freedom, p-value) | AICc | ΔAICc |
---|---|---|---|
Vector genus | 3, 0.0149 | 122.1 | 0 |
None | ---- | 125.2 | 3.1 |
Predator family | 12, 0.8855 | 167.9 | 45.8 |
Additional files
-
Supplementary file 1
Table 1: Publications included in the database and their types of vector trait data.
- https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/71503/elife-71503-supp1-v1.docx
-
Transparent reporting form
- https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/71503/elife-71503-transrepform1-v1.pdf
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Both consumptive and non-consumptive effects of predators impact mosquito populations and have implications for disease transmission
eLife 11:e71503.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.71503