Gonotrophic Cycle Duration, Population Age Structure, and Onset of Sugar Feeding and Insemination of Aedes triseriatus (Diptera: Culicidae)

Abstract

During two successive summers, laboratory-reared Aedes triseriatus (Say) were marked and released into two woodlots in central Ohio. Several cohorts of two groups of mosquitoes were marked and released: blood-engorged, 10-12-d-old females and unfed, 2-d-old females. The parity of marked mosquitoes captured during daily biting collections were used to estimate the duration of the gonotrophic cycle. The parity rate of unmarked mosquitoes, in conjunction with the cycle estimate, yielded data on age structure and daily survival. Information on the onset of insemination and sugar feeding also was obtained. The mean and median duration of the first gonotrophic cycle, based on females released after blood feeding and later finding the collector, was 12 d. Unfed females required a median of about 8 d to feed on sugar, mate, and locate the collector, but required 22-32 d to sugar feed, mate, find a natural host, become parous, and then find the collector. The median duration of the natural gonotrophic cycle was estimated to take 14 d during warm (22 degrees C) weather. The parity rate of the natural population remained between 29 and 51% during the last 3 mo of each summer. The high proportion parous indicated that daily survival rate of unmarked females was above 0.9. Marked females moved between woodlots for distances as far as 400 m and were more likely to emigrate from the small woodlot than the large one.