testing of blood - fed mosquitoes plays an integral role in the surveillance for arboviruses  to understand the interaction mechanisms between host , vector and reservoir , and to identify and evaluate the role of potential bridge vector species in transmission of pathogens of public health importance .
additionally , blood - fed mosquitoes can give us information regarding the feeding preference , seroconversion status of that host , infectivity level of the reservoir host , etc .
, which immensely helps researchers in understanding the ecology of arboviruses . sampling a blood - fed mosquito is equivalent to sampling a host - seeking mosquito as well as a wild bird simultaneously . for the purpose of arbovirus surveillance
different types of traps are available in the market for trapping mosquitoes which can be basically grouped into three main categories .
evs traps collect host - seeking mosquitoes but as they have not yet taken blood - meal the majority of them are sterile / non - infective and non - blood - feds .
gravid traps are attractant towards oviposition females after they have digested the blood - meal and are ready to lay eggs .
resting boxes are attractant to mosquitoes after they have taken blood - meal and should be ideal for collection of blood - fed mosquitoes .
surprisingly , review of the literature revealed that on the us east coast , resting boxes were the least successful for disease surveillance purposes because of their low mosquito trap count .
the present study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of resting boxes in comparison with gravid traps for collecting blood - fed female mosquitoes of different species in the northwestern part of the riverside county of california .
three trapping sites were selected in the northwest mosquito and vector control district ( nwmvcd ) of the riverside county of california based upon their resemblance to semi - urban and rural topographies [ figure 1 ] .
these sites had a mixed resident population of horses , dogs , birds and humans .
one resting box measuring h  d  w : 6  6  4 [ figure 2 ] was placed at each selected site , in shade under a tree , with its open end facing south .
resting mosquitoes were aspirated once a week with in - house - developed battery - operated mechanical aspirator [ figure 3 ] .
overnight trappings were done on a weekly basis between july - december 2009 . to maintain consistency trap deployment and mosquito collection
mosquitoes were collected the next morning at the same time during cooler hours ( before 9 am ) ; transported to the nwmvcd laboratory over blue ice ; identified up to species level on chill table ; and classified as male , female and blood - fed females .
the data was stored in microsoft excel spread data sheet and statistically analyzed for percentage proportion of species , sex and blood - fed females of each species collected per trap type .
the brief description about the three study sites is as under : resting box used in the present study in - house - developed battery - operated mechanical mosquito aspirator located in the city of norco ( latitude : 335623.7n , longitude : 1173259.4w , altitude : 504 feet , semi - urban type ) , this site provides indoor and outdoor boarding facility to 55 horses .
in addition to horses , there were over 300 chicken roosters ( gallus gallus ) , 10 goats ( capra hircus ) , 4 watchdogs ( corgi mixed breed ) and 8 human attendants living on the property .
three sides of this ranch have boundaries with neighboring horse - boarding facilities . located in the city of norco ( latitude : 335411.05n , longitude : 1773312.76w , altitude : 533 feet , semi - urban type ) , this is a horse boarding place with indoor and outdoor riding arenas .
thirty - five horses were living in this place with four dogs ( labrador mix breed ) and four humans .
the east side of this property has an approach road while the west side of the property has a huge pond filled with waste runaway rainwater .
located in the city of mira loma ( latitude : 335826.28n , longitude : 1772959.04w , altitude : 559 feet , rural type ) , this site has outdoor horse boarding with 40 horses in addition to 5 dogs ( 3 : pomerians , 2 : labrador mix breed ) .
this site mimics a rural setup with the south end touching the basin of santa ana river and having floodwater wash on the east side .
located in the city of norco ( latitude : 335623.7n , longitude : 1173259.4w , altitude : 504 feet , semi - urban type ) , this site provides indoor and outdoor boarding facility to 55 horses .
in addition to horses , there were over 300 chicken roosters ( gallus gallus ) , 10 goats ( capra hircus ) , 4 watchdogs ( corgi mixed breed ) and 8 human attendants living on the property .
located in the city of norco ( latitude : 335411.05n , longitude : 1773312.76w , altitude : 533 feet , semi - urban type ) , this is a horse boarding place with indoor and outdoor riding arenas .
thirty - five horses were living in this place with four dogs ( labrador mix breed ) and four humans .
the east side of this property has an approach road while the west side of the property has a huge pond filled with waste runaway rainwater .
located in the city of mira loma ( latitude : 335826.28n , longitude : 1772959.04w , altitude : 559 feet , rural type ) , this site has outdoor horse boarding with 40 horses in addition to 5 dogs ( 3 : pomerians , 2 : labrador mix breed ) .
this site mimics a rural setup with the south end touching the basin of santa ana river and having floodwater wash on the east side .
during this study period ( july to december 2009 ) , 3953 mosquitoes ( 826 blood - fed females ) belonging to three different genera and eight species were collected in various traps . resting boxes ( rb ) collected maximum variety of different mosquito species ( rb : seven , gravid : one , evs : three species ) .
quinquefasciatus ( rb : 70.7% and gravid : 97.4% of their total respective mosquito collection ) .
quinquefasciatus is one of the local competent vectors for west nile virus ( wnv ) and other arboviruses . during this study period , out of the total 2474 mosquitoes collected from resting boxes
, the majority ( 98.3% ) of the females belonged to the culex genus comprising five species ( cx .
the proportion of blood - fed females of the culex species collected in resting boxes was 28.8 times more , while of blood - fed females of cx .
overall , the proportion ( 63.3% of the total 1273 female mosquitoes collected ) of blood - fed female mosquitoes collected was the highest in resting boxes followed by gravid traps with 2.2% of their individual total female count .
species - wise , 63.4% of culex , 50% of culiseta and 61.35% of anopheles females collected in resting boxes were blood - fed while the proportion of blood - fed females of these three genera in gravid traps was very low [ table 1 ] .
historically speaking , since the invasion of southern california by wnv in 2003 , it has been detected in pools of cx .
resting boxes collected blood - fed female mosquitoes of all the above species except cx .
erythrothorax which are commonly found in the wetland area containing cattails ( typha spp . ) and bullrush ( schoenoplectus californicus ) .
although in the present study area all the three collection sites were lacking such ecotone , some host - seeking but non - blood - fed cx .
the success of resting boxes in collecting such a huge proportion of blood - fed females was due to their strategic locations i.e. they were strategically placed close to a potential source of blood - meals .
after taking blood - meal , it is insect physiology that female mosquitoes try to rest at the next available cool dark place for its digestion and production of eggs .
a resting box nearby offered such cool dark shade and care was taken to avoid exposure of resting mosquitoes to sunlight from the setting or rising sun by facing the open face of the box towards the south .
another important aspect for a higher proportion of blood - fed mosquitoes from resting boxes was the aspiration time .
resting boxes were aspirated during early morning cooler hours ( not later than 9 am in the present study area ) as with the rising sun , the temperature also rises , resulting in flying away of blood - fed females . during this study ,
whenever we were in the neighborhood of resting boxes , they were checked for the presence of mosquitoes during mid - day or afternoon hours . since resting boxes
do not have any trap - door or fan to hold back the mosquitoes , they were either found empty or having very few mosquitoes .
so if a researcher did not come to collect the mosquitoes from resting boxes during morning cooler hours , he / she would be disappointed with their collection ability .
thus , resting boxes proved to be a huge success in collection of blood - fed mosquitoes in the northwestern part of riverside county .
during this study period mosquitoes belonging to three different genera and eight species were collected in various traps .
quinquefasciatus , which is one of the local competent vectors for wnv and other arboviruses .
the proportion of blood - fed females of the culex species collected in resting boxes was 28.8 times more , while of blood - fed females of cx .
additionally , in comparison to gravid traps , resting boxes require no batteries or dry ice to operate , generate no hazardous waste , require less man - hours per mosquito collection , have extremely low running cost and are not prone to thefts or vandalisms .
these advantages make the choice of resting boxes extremely beneficial to researchers and public health agencies who have limited resources , especially in developing / underdeveloped countries where the epidemics of arboviruses , e.g. dengue , chickungunya , etc .
 objectives : testing of blood - fed mosquitoes plays an integral role in arbovirus surveillance and in understanding its interaction mechanisms between host , vector and reservoir . 
 the present study was undertaken to evaluate the efficacy of two different traps ( gravid and resting boxes ) for collection of blood - fed mosquitoes in the northwestern part of riverside county.materials and methods : three trapping sites were selected in the northwest mosquito and vector control district of riverside county , california . at each site resting boxes and gravid traps were set ; and mosquitoes were collected on a weekly basis between july - december 2009 . 
 mosquitoes were transported over blue ice , identified up to species level on chill table , and classified as male , female and blood - fed females.results:during this study period , 3953 mosquitoes ( 826 blood - fed females ) belonging to three different genera and eight species were collected ; resting boxes collecting maximum number ( seven ) of mosquito species . 
 overall as well as individually in each trap kind , the most abundant mosquito species collected was cx . 
 quinquefasciatus . 
 the proportion of blood - fed females of the culex species collected in resting boxes was 28.8 times more , while of blood - fed females of cx . 
 quinquefasciatus was 32.2 times more than the proportion collected from gravid traps.conclusions:overall , the proportion of blood - fed female mosquitoes collected for each species trapped was highest in resting boxes . 
 additionally , resting boxes showed the advantage of extremely low running and maintenance cost ; generation of no hazardous waste ; quick turnaround time in terms of mosquito collection per man - hour spent ; and they were less prone to vandalism or thefts . 
INTRODUCTION
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Valley view ave
Corona ave
Limonite ave
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
CONCLUSIONS