Laurent Guillaumot; Reynold Ofanoa; Lucien Swillen; Narendra Singh; Hervé C Bossin; Francis Schaffner

“ Table 1 "Status of Aedes albopictus in the 17 South Pacific island countries and territories"Countries and territories where Ae. albopictusis present are in bold. In New Caledonia , the species is currently absent. Routine mosquito surveillance, aiming at monitoring dengue and chikungunya vector populations and detecting invasive species around ports of entry (harbor and airport) , is carried out using regular larval and adult collections (sticky ovitraps, [20] , BG Sentinel® traps, Biogents, Germany) in urban and rural areas. Overall, up to 23,000 mosquitoes are identified annually. ”

“ Sequences obtained for 4 specimens (3 females, 1 male) were >99% identical to corresponding Ae. albopictus GenBank entries. This is the first report of this species in the Kingdom of Tonga.
Table 2 "Details of immature mosquito sampling in Tongatapu, 26–30 June 2011" Map of Tonga showing the localities where Aedes albopictuswas found. Modified from WHO with permission. A prior larval survey conducted in 2007 on the main island of Tongatapu and in the Vava’u group revealed the presence of 8 species including Ae. aegypti and the local member of the Scutellaris group, Aedes tongae [25] . ”

“ Although the classical mode of introduction consists of the transfer of eggs through the tire trade, the invasive mosquito could also have been introduced as larvae or even adults transported in trade ships. ”

“ We assume this is/was not substantiated since (1) the sources are not mentioned, (2) except for the countries previously mentioned, we were unable to find any ancient or recent corroborating data in the literature, and (3) most of the reports do not match our observations. ”

“ Vet Parasitol. 2012;184:258–266.10.1016/j.vetpar.2011.08.03421963364↑ Harding JS, Brown C, Jones F, Taylor R. Distribution and habitats of mosquito larvae in the Kingdom of Tonga. Australian Journal of Entomology. 2007;46:332–338.10.1111/j.1440-6055.2007.00610.x↑ Rueda LM. Pictorial keys for the identification of mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) associated with Dengue Virus Transmission. Zootaxa. 2004;589:33–41.↑ Alibert A, Pfannstiel A, Grangeon JP. Chikungunya outbreak in New Caledonia in 2011, Status report as at 22 August 2011. ”