**4. Discussion**

This study suggests that the choice of traps affects conclusions about relative species abundances in different ecoregions. Though general conclusions by arithmetic mean are similar, detection of statistically significant differences in abundance may be dependent on trap type and is highly dependent on sample size. In this survey, there was an obvious difference between mosquito abundance, especially for *An. quadramaculatus*, in the Mississippi River Alluvial Plain and the other ecoregions, and this conclusion was consistent across trap types. Two trap types suggested higher abundance of *Ae. albopictus* in the Osage Plains ecoregion, though these differences were not statistically significant.

This *post hoc* analysis of trapping data confirms earlier studies demonstrating high trap effectiveness for the BG-Sentinel trap for *Ae. albopictus*, though the Fay-Prince Omnidirectional trap had somewhat similar results. This study suggests that the BG Sentinel is suitable for continued surveillance of container-inhabiting mosquitoes in Missouri, though it probably provides a disproportionate estimate of relative *Aedes* abundance. This finding will be important when interpreting survey results for *Ae. albopictus* and other vectors of Zika virus.

This survey is the largest mosquito survey in Missouri to date. It covered a much larger geographical area than any previous study and is the only one to include four different ecoregions. The survey utilized a variety of trap types. It does have several weaknesses. First, it was not originally designed as a comparison of different trap efficacies, but was instead a *post hoc* analysis of available data. In addition, due to the focus on potential vectors of Zika virus, the choice of surveillance sites emphasized habitats associated with artificial container-inhabiting species near human habitation and thus collected *Aedes* species in disproportionate numbers. Also, some of those sites were in urban habitats that may have masked some of the effect of ecoregion. Finally, the traps were not randomly assigned to sites and were at times placed in the exact same spot repeatedly over the trapping seasons. Finally, sample sizes varied greatly between the three trap types and were probably insufficient for at least one type, the BG Sentinel. Nevertheless, this survey provides consistent estimates of relative mosquito abundance by ecoregions and provides some evidence of trap type efficacy by species.
