Limited differentiation in thermal traits along an urban to rural gradient in populations of the tiger mosquito.
Data files
Sep 29, 2026 version files 113.68 KB
-
code_submission.R
12.67 KB
-
CT.csv
10.81 KB
-
Emergence.csv
27.95 KB
-
Pupa_data.csv
40.35 KB
-
README.md
4.50 KB
-
survivors.csv
222 B
-
Table_S1.xlsx
17.18 KB
Abstract
We compared thermal traits between three urban and three rural populations of the tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus). In a laboratory common garden experiment, we reared tiger mosquitoes at three temperatures, and we compared five traits: larval developmental rate, pupal developmental rate, pre-emergence survival, adult critical thermal maximum, and adult critical thermal minimum. Values in the dataset correspond to individual mosquitoes, which are labeled as either 'urban' or 'rural' and an abbreviation for their corresponding population of origin.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.t1g1jwtfk
Description of the data and file structure
Aedes albopictus eggs were collected from rural and urban sites in the Saint Louis, Missouri, USA metropolitan area. After two-four lab generations, mosquitoes were raised in a common garden to compare thermal traits of urban and rural populations.
Files and variables
File: CT.csv
Description: critical thermal limits experiment, comparing urban and rural populations across rearing temperatures.
Variables
- Assistant: co-author who assisted TR in collecting critical thermal data.
- Date: data of data collection.
- Population: identifier for one of 6 collection locations.
- RearingTemp: temperature at which mosquitoes were reared in Celsius.
- Sex: male or female
- MinMax: whether critical thermal maximum or minimum was measured.
- Value: the measured critical thermal maximum or minimum. Values of "n/a" are for individuals where critical thermal limits could not be recorded during the trial (e.g., death during trial).
- WingLength: Not applicable. Ignore column.
- ID: individual identification number.
- Rep: identifier for batch of five mosquitoes for which critical thermal limits was measured.
- LandType: urban or rural population origin.
File: Pupa_data.csv
Description:
Variables
- Pop: identifier for one of 6 collection locations.
- Temp_C: rearing temperature in Celsius.
- Replicate: identifier for batch of ten larvae reared together in a tripour.
- LandType: population origin classified as either urban or rural.
- Rep: another way of writing replicate.
- Dev_days: Individual-level data on days spent as larvae. Values of "n/a" are for individuals that died before pupation, and thus their larval developmental rate could not be recorded.
- IndRate: Individual-level data on larval developmental rate.
File: code_submission.R
Description: R script for analyzing data.
File: Emergence.csv
Description: contains data on time as pupae (i.e., after larval stage but before emerging as adults).
Variables
- Population: site origin.
- LandType: classification as either urban or rural.
- Temp: rearing temperature in Celsius.
- Replicate: corresponds to replicate from larvae were sourced during larval development (see description under Pupa_data.csv).
- N: Number of pupa initially in vial. Varies based on how many individuals pupated on the same day from the same larval replicate.
- DaysToPupation: Days spent as larvae.
- Dev_days: Days spent as pupae.
- sex: Sex of individual, marked as either male (M) or female (F), recorded after adult emergence.
- IndRate: developmental rate of individual pupa.
File: survivors.csv
Description: survival to pre-emergence mortality from each of six populations.
Variables
- LandType: classification as either urban or rural.
- Temp: rearing temperature in Celsius.
- Sum_survived: number of individuals that survived in that combination of LandType and Temp.
- totals: the number of individuals in each combination of LandType and Temp, summing living and dead.
- fraction: fraction of individuals that survived to adult emergence in each combination of LandType and Temp. This was calculated as Sum_survived divided by totals.
File: Table_S1.xlsx
Description: Sample size of individual mosquitoes for each population, sex (when applicable), population, and temperature.
Variables
- Trait: the name of the trait being studied.
- Temperature (°C): the temperature treatment experienced by mosquitoes.
- Land Type: classification as either urban or rural.
- Population: which of the 6 populations from which mosquitoes originated.
- N total: sample size for corresponding trait-temperature-population combination.
- N Males: sample size of males for corresponding trait-temperature-population combination. Values of "n/a" are for cases where the sex could not be determined. Note that sex was only recorded after adult emergence.
- N Females: sample size of females for corresponding trait-temperature-population combination. Values of "n/a" are for cases where the sex could not be determined. Note that sex was only recorded after adult emergence.
Code/software
All data files are saved in csv format, and can be readily analyzed using R, via the the file "code_submission.R".