Frequency of Blood-feeding in Relation to Sugar Availability in Aedes aegypti and Anopheles quadrimaculatus (Diptera: Culicidae)

Abstract

In adult females of the mosquitoes Aedes aegypti (L.) and Anopheles quadrimaculatus Say, mean frequency of blood-feeding was measured under two ad lib. regimes: water only and 50% honey solution. After an initial sugar-feeding and mating period, a human hand was offered daily for 2—3 wk to groups of caged mosquitoes, and the number blood-feeding each day was recorded. Mean feeding frequency of A. aegypti with access to 50% honey (0.54 blood meals per female per day) was significantly lower than the frequency of those with only water (0.71 blood meals per female per day). At least in part, this was due to reduced supplementary blood-feeding in honey-fed females. Mean feeding frequency of A. quadrimaculatus with access to honey (0.28 blood meals per female per day) was not significantly lower than the frequency of those with only water (0.31 blood meals per female per day). This lack of difference reflected a balance, in honey-fed females, between a higher incidence of supplementary blood-feeding and a lower incidence of primary blood-feeding, apparently due to delayed oviposition.