Following heavy rainfall, an entomological team surveys peri-domestic bamboo stumps and discarded tyres around a village in Maharashtra and finds striped Aedes larvae in these outdoor natural containers. Which species is most likely identified?

• A Aedes aegypti
• B Culex tritaeniorhynchus
• C Aedes vittatus
• D Aedes albopictus ✓

Explanation

Aedes albopictus, the Asian tiger mosquito, is recognised by silver-white longitudinal stripes on its black thorax and characteristically breeds outdoors in natural and artificial containers such as bamboo stumps, tree holes and tyres. Aedes aegypti is predominantly an indoor, man-made container breeder in urban settings. Culex tritaeniorhynchus breeds in large water bodies like paddies and lacks these markings, making it an implausible distractor here.

Reference: Park's Textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine, 26th ed.

High-yield for: NEET PGINI-CETNExTFMGEUSMLEPLABMRCP

Written and medically reviewed by the StethoPrep medical team.