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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Gainesville, Florida » Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology » Mosquito and Fly Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #241387
Title: Influence of multiple blood meals on gonotrophic dissociation and fecundity in Aedes albopictus

Author
item XUE, RUI-DE - Anastasia Mosquito Control District
item Barnard, Donald
item ALI, ARSHAD - University Of Florida

Submitted to: Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/20/2009
Publication Date: 12/1/2009
Citation: Xue, R., Barnard, D.R., Ali, A. 2009. Influence of multiple blood meals on gonotrophic dissociation and fecundity in Aedes albopictus. Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association. 25:504-507.

Interpretive Summary: When mosquitoes suck blood they can transmit pathogens that cause disease to animals and humans. A female mosquito disturbed while blood feeding will continue to seek blood (on the same or other host types) until satiated. Contact with multiple hosts during this time increases the chance for disease agent transmission. The characteristics of the resulting blood meal also influence the female's reproductive cycle and ultimately the growth of the mosquito population. When ARS and university scientists studied the affect of multiple blood meals (from domestic chicken, guinea pig, and/or a human host) on the development of eggs in the Asian Tiger Mosquito, they found that multiple blood meals increased the number of eggs produced by each female mosquito. The results indicate that in addition to increasing disease agent transmission multiple blood meals increase fecundity and potentiate growth in the mosquito population.

Technical Abstract: Female Aedes albopictus blood fed on guinea pig and human hosts produced significantly (P < 0.05) higher number of eggs (80 and 82/female, respectively) than females fed on chicken (67 eggs/female). Fecundity in mosquitoes that took a double blood meal (chicken and guinea pig), a triple blood meal (three separate guinea pigs), or mixed blood meals (chicken, guinea pig, and human) was significantly (P < 0.001) higher than in females fed on a single chicken or on two separate chickens (re-feeding). Blood meal source did not influence gonotrophic dissociation in Ae. albopictus.