CUBE Kanpur: A CUBE Initiative for School students

Theertha · March 24, 2024, 3:18am

Following are the photos shared by Cubists from AllenHouse Public school, Kanpur & the follow-up discussions.

1)Mosquito model system:

Male Aedes Aegypti mosquito captured today at 2:45 pm on 20th February 2024 in Swaroop Nagar, Kanpur by Isha Chandna CUBE Kanpur

[20/02, 4:12 pm] Arunan sir : How do we know it is male Aedes mosquito? @⁨Isha CUBE⁩
[20/02, 4:17 pm] Arunan sir : Does male mosquito feed on blood? @⁨Isha CUBE⁩
I heard that Male mosquitoes feed on plant juice.
Please give a summary of the location and lifestyle where we can find male Male Anopheles mosquitoes. @⁨Isha CUBE⁩ @⁨Hina CUBE⁩ @⁨Sakshi⁩

Post by @isha.
Sir we know that it is Male Aedes Aegypti mosquito as my capture shows white spots on the legs as well as the lyre like structure present on the thorax region of this mosquito,the feature that tells us that it’s male is the bushy bristles even though not as clear of a capture of the bristles still we can observe a little.I have marked the identification features in this photo to make it more understandable.

Mosquito identified - non aedes (male)
Identification feature- no white dot like structures in body parts and bushy antenna
Dated-6/3/24.
Time-10pm
Location- Halsey road Kanpur (indoor)
By- Kavyanjali Chauhan Cube Kanpur

Male non aedes mosquito captured at 6:21 pm on 24th February 2024 (Inside)in Swaroop Nagar, Kanpur by Isha Chandna CUBE Kanpur.

Male non aedes mosquito captured at 1:57 pm on 24th February 2024 (inside)in Swaroop Nagar,Kanpur by Isha Chandna CUBE Kanpur

[24/02, 3:05 pm] Arunan sir : What do you mean by non Aedes mosquito? @⁨Isha CUBE⁩
What is the importance of that?
[24/02, 3:31 pm] Isha CUBE: Aedes mosquitoes are mosquitoes which have white bands over their legs and different identification features on their thorax region to identify their types but white bands will be common in all aedes mosquitoes.

Non aedes mosquitoes are mosquitoes which do not possess these characteristics.
Non aedes are of many types but over the years veteran cubists from Kanpur identified 2 kinds which were most commonly found in our city .
They are - Anopheles mosquito and Culex mosquito
Culex mosquito spreads West Nile fever and Japanese encephalitis whereas Anopheles mosquito spreads malaria.
[24/02, 3:40 pm] Abhijeet CUBE: “Culex mosquito spreads West Nile fever and Japanese encephalitis”

I haven’t heard of these 2 diseases spread by Culex mosquito. Can you tell more about it?.

Isha:
Japanese encephalitis
https://g.co/kgs/zSsrGzF
Caused by Culex mosquito

West Nile Fever

Caused by Culex mosquito

Aedes mosquitoes-

Characteristics of aedes mosquitoes

Our collaborators from CUBE Kanpur are Kavyanjali Chauhan ,Ma’am Hina Mudgal ,Rahil Mudgal and myself.

Looks like, two Mosquito sisters caught while gardening. 11:25 am 23 March 2024 Madel, Thivim, North Goa Photo mcarunan

Garden mosquito at 11:17 am 23 March 2024 for help in identification. Madel,Thivim,North Goa Photo mcarunan

IMG-20240323-WA0062
https://images.app.goo.gl/e5S6giZU5JUeeJH7A

Post by @Isha
Aedes Aegypti mosquito has a lyre like structure present on its thorax
Reference- Aedes aegypti - Google Search

Aedes Albobictus has a line like structure present on its thorax
Reference-https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/aedes-albopictus#:~:text=Aedes%20albopictus%20(Skuse%2C%201894),white%20stripe%20on%20its%20thorax

Aedes Vitattus has 4 dots present on its thorax
Reference-Aedes vittatus (Bigot, 1861) | Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit (WRBU)

kvk · March 24, 2024, 8:00am

The mosquito appears to drink blood through a cloth; many times they have bitten me through my shirt or trouser. If male mosquitoes too develop a taste for blood, we are in trouble.

Theertha · March 24, 2024, 9:56am

I thought that male mosquitoes do not feed on blood, but when I searched, I found a reference that says Culex quinquefasciatus males feed on blood as well.

In agreement with the literature, male and female proboscises and stylets were in general of similar size, but male mandibles were significantly shorter than female counterparts, thus explaining their inability to pierce through skin layers.

Blood- and sugar feeding of female mosquitoes has been frequently observed in the laboratory and in the field, but only sugar feeding of males has been reported. Here, we describe for the first time that *Culex quinquefasciatus males feed on blood as well.
Nevertheless, feeding on blood reduces the survival rate of males to just a few days, as compared to more than a month for mosquitoes fed only on sugar.

Theertha · June 25, 2024, 8:33am

Drinking water ovitrap
19.6.24
Windowsill(Outdoors)
Swaroop Nagar, Kanpur
Isha Chandna CUBE Kanpur

Tap water ovitrap
19.6.24
Windowsill(inside)
Swaroop Nagar, Kanpur
Isha Chandna CUBE Kanpur

Muddy water ovitrap
19.6.24
Above AC(indoors)
Swaroop Nagar, Kanpur
Isha Chandna CUBE Kanpur

Method to set up Ovitraps
Data collected by:Isha

Theertha · June 25, 2024, 8:36am

20.6.23
Eggs along with larvae seen in Drinking water ovitrap on 11th day after set up
Location:Storeroom
Swaroop Nagar, Kanpur
Isha Chandna CUBE Kanpur

22.6.23
Eggs along with larvae seen in Muddy water ovitrap on 13th day after set up
Location:Windowsill(inside)
Swaroop Nagar, Kanpur
Isha Chandna CUBE Kanpur

Theertha · June 25, 2024, 8:52am

Tap water ovitrap
19.6.24
Windowsill(inside)
Swaroop Nagar, Kanpur
Isha Chandna CUBE Kanpur

This is the set up @⁨Batul Ma’am⁩ ma’am

Eggs were noticed 6 days after the set up(25.6.24)

Muddy water ovitrap
25.6.24
No eggs seen.

Drinking water ovitrap
25.6.24
No eggs seen

Theertha · June 25, 2024, 9:48am

Context to curriculum WhatsApp group discussions:

Isha:This picture confirms that this mosquito is Non Aedes as we can observe no white bands over the mosquito’s body which is present in Aedes mosquitoes.
Male mosquitoes feed on nectar of flowers therefore they can be seen in gardens with flowers.

Yes a better picture can be taken for the mosquito identification,but due to my phone camera’s not so clear focus ,the picture appeared a bit blurred.This will be fixed from next time onwards by ensuring a proper focus.

We are sure that this is Female mosquito as it has no bushy bristles near the antennae whereas Male mosquito has bushy bristles.

References:

Male Mosquito
PC:Isha Chandna CUBE Kanpur

Female Mosquito
PC:Isha Chandna CUBE Kanpur

Mosquito ,a killer insect found in Asian countries is a carrier of dreadful pathogens like plasmodium falciparum and vivax,Zika virus,den virus,flavivirus,Arbovirus, and spreads dreadful diseases.Keeping in mind the pathogenicity of this common fly,CUBE Kanpur from Uttar Pradesh,India identified this problem and started working on this since 2018.The study started with sample collections ,Ovitrap setups , sharing of pictures of breeding sites and indentification of mosquito types for comparitive studies from the year 2018-2024.

This is the sixth year of CUBE mosquito study in which over 15 students collaborated with CUBE Mentor ,MC Arunan and Hina Mudgal and studied mosquito prevelance.
The data was shared with Municipal Authority.

5 main types of mosquitoes(Aedes Aegypti,Aedes Albobictus ,Aedes Vitatus,Anopheles Mosquito and Culex Mosquito) were detected and studied.
Many times awareness drives were also carried out to the break the inertia of locals regarding sanitation methods.

The mosquito studies still continue via student cubists.The concept of Mindmapping by our mosquito study helped in connecting major topics in collaborative science studies.
Inviting collaborators to collaboratore by sharing their data in the form of pictures and videos of Mosquitoes and mosquito breeding sites to study mosquito prevalence and factors affecting it.

@⁨Hina CUBE⁩ ma’am @⁨Arunan sir sir @⁨Kiran CUBE⁩ ma’am @⁨Theertha⁩ @⁨Batul Ma’am⁩ ma’am@⁨~Rahil⁩ @⁨Prithviraj CUBE⁩ sir

Location:Swaroop Nagar, Kanpur
Isha Chandna CUBE Kanpur

[25/06, 2:26 pm] Theertha: How did you made this ? By collecting the mosquitoes through clap trap methods?

[25/06, 2:51 pm] Isha: Mostly I collected data using normal captures ,few of them were through clap trap.
I have shared the visuals

[25/06, 3:12 pm] Theertha: have you made that bar diagram using 42 + 48 = 90 mosquitoes ?

[25/06, 3:16 pm] Isha: Yes

Theertha · June 25, 2024, 2:11pm

Collaborators:

Can you identify this mosquito. It is from Chaverkodu Varkala CUBE SN. College Varkala. 2-6-24

Mosquito capture 4 years ago 20 February 2020, Thiruvananthapuram from CUBE Archives Photo mcarunan @⁨Isha⁩ please help to identify a. Male or female b. Species? @⁨Hina CUBE⁩

Slap-trap method.
CUBE Homelab cherukkad Kozhikode

4 Aedes mosquito captured by clap trap.
4.7.23
7:23 am
Swaroop Nagar, Kanpur
PC:Isha Chandna CUBE Kanpur

Inspired by Mahadev and Isha Chandana, Kindergarten kids also started similar setup
Shared by Himanshu joshi.

Theertha · November 28, 2024, 2:50pm

Clap to Trap Mosquitoes at CUBE HomeLab, Thivim, Goa 6 December 2017 Photo mcarunan