Figure 3.

The effects of Wolbachia infection and competition stress on Culex quinquefasciatus size and Wolbachia density. Wing length was measured for WT and Tet adults reared under the three competition stress treatments as a proxy for body size (A). Mosquitoes reared under higher competition stress had shorter wings, indicating a smaller body size. There was no impact of Wolbachia infection (Two-way ANOVA). Dots represent data from individual female mosquitoes, while horizontal lines indicate treatment means ± s.e.m. Wolbachia density was quantified for the three WT lines using qPCR, comparing copies of the Wolbachia 16 s rRNA gene relative to the host homothorax gene (qHTH; B), with significantly lower density associated with increasing competition stress (Kruskal-Wallis test; p < 0.0001). Violin plots in (B) highlight the distribution of Wolbachia density data, with dots representing single samples and horizontal lines representing treatment medians. Different lower-case letters above data sets indicate statistically significant differences between treatment groups.