This dataset is described and analyzed in the paper: "Xia, S., Dweck, H. K. M., Lutomiah, J., Sang, R., McBride, C. S., Rose, N. H., Ayala, D., & Powell, J. R. (2021). Larval sites of the mosquito Aedes aegypti formosus in forest and domestic habitats in Africa and the potential association with oviposition evolution. Ecology and Evolution, 00, 1– 17. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8332"

The mosquito Ae. aegypti is a major vector of several arboviral diseases. In Africa, Ae. aegypti can be found in both ancestral forest habitats and human-made domestic habitats, such as villages. They also use different types of containers as larval sites: while the forest Ae. aegypti use tree holes and rock pools, the domestic population rely mostly on artificial contains such as plastic buckets. As an initial attempt to better understand Ae. aegypti larval ecology and evolution in different habitat, we characterized the microenvironment of their larval sites in both habitats and compare between them. We focuses on two localities in Africa: La Lope in Gabon, and Rabai in Kenya. The current dataset contains data from La Lope and the Rabai data can be found in a different dataset (DOI:10.5061/dryad.3tx95x6cz). In this dataset, we characterized 38 Ae. aegypti larval site from the La Lope village and 60 larval site from the La Lope forest. Specifically, the first ten column of the dataset provides basic information of each larval site, such as sampling location, date and habitat etc. The data also includes the measures of 11 physical variables of each larva site. These variables describe the size of the container, ambient environment such as temperature and humidity, and water pH and conductivity. Lastly, the dataset has the number of Ae. aegypti and other mosquito species found in each larval site, as well as measures of microbial density. Using this dataset, we found that forest and village larval sites have different microenvironments. The detailed analysis and discussion can be found in the paper.

We hope this dataset could provide useful basic ecological information on Ae. aegypti larval habitat in Africa. We encourage future studies to explore this dataset and generate more hypothesis on Ae. aegypti ecology and evolution. 

This dataset was collected during fieldwork in La Lope, Gabon between November and December 2016. We collected basic information and measured 11 physical characteristics for 98 mosquito larval sites in both forest and village habitats. A potential mosquito larval site was defined as a water-holding container holding at least one mosquito larva.

In the dataset, the first ten columns of the dataset described the basic information of each larval site, including collection date, location, and larval site habitat, etc. The 11th column indicates whether physical characteristics were measured for a larval site. The 12th to the 22nd columns contain the 11 physical variables. The 23rd column indicates whether the site was used in the larval density analysis, and the next four columns contain the larval density measures. The 28th column indicates whether the site was included in the analysis of predator presence. The 29th and 30th columns are the information about microbial density in the larval sites. Lastly, the last column is an indicator of which sites have bacterial community composition data. 

The metadata provides more explanation on how each variable was recorded or measured, as well as a column that estimates the credibility of the measurement with some additional notes. Missing values are indicated by "NA" in the dataset.