The Numbers of Eggs Developed Related to the Quantities of Human Blood Ingested in Aedes Aegypti (L.) (Diptera: Culicidae)

Drinking a hot blood meal elicits a protective heat shock response in mosquitoes

“…It is interesting to note that the ability to up-regulate hsp70 declines with age of the female (20), perhaps resulting in impairment of cellular repair mechanisms (6). Coincidently, mosquito fecundity decreases with female age (25), suggesting a possible interplay between the capacity for Hsp70 production, aging, and egg production. We suspect that the Hsp response we have observed is most prominent in arthropods that feed on warm-blooded vertebrate hosts.…”

Christophers’ stage durations and effect of interrupted blood meal in the mosquitoAedes caspius(Diptera: Culicidae)

“…king behaviour of Aedes aegypti (Klowden & Lea, 1978) and there is a correlation between fecundity and blood intake in quality as well as in quantity for Aedes and Culex species (Woke et al, 1956;Shelton, 1972). Under this threshold, vitellogenesis is not induced (Woke et al, 1956;Clements, 1992).…”

“…Under this threshold, vitellogenesis is not induced (Woke et al, 1956;Clements, 1992). Aedes caspius (Pallas, 1771) is widely distributed in Europe (Gabinaud, 1975) and breeds in a variety of places (Rioux, 1958).…”

The Endocrine Basis for Reproductive Life-history Trade-offs during the Previtellogenic Resting Stage in the Yellow Fever Mosquito, Aedes aegypti

“…The ubiquity of resorption after a blood meal in mosquitoes of all nutritional conditions strongly suggests that blood can never prevent all resorption and that yolk components are probably always in short supply during vitellogenesis (Lea et al, 1978;Clements and Boocock, 1984;Nayar and Sauerman, 1975;Mostowy and Foster 2004). Taken together with the multitude of studies that have shown a clear relationship between the magnitude of resorption and blood meal size (Woke et al 1956, Colless and Chellapah 1960, Jalil 1974Lea et al, 1978;Mostowy and Foster, 2004), a limit to the nutrition that can be derived from a blood meal would explain the high levels of vitellogenic resorption seen in low reserve mosquitoes despite the acquisition of a large blood meal. In this context, previtellogenic lipid reserves may be doubly important by: (1) determining the extent of utilization of a blood meal and/or the extent of synthesis of yolk proteins and (2) for direct incorporation into follicles during oogenesis.…”

“…It is well documented that the final quantity of eggs produced (and as a corollary, the amount of vitellogenic resorption) is dependent in part on the quantity of blood ingested when comparing mosquitoes with equal previtellogenic nutritional reserves (Woke et al, 1956, Colless and Chellapah 1960, Jalil 1974Lea et al, 1978). Other work has shown that mosquitoes with low previtellogenic reserves will take substantially larger blood meals than high reserve mosquitoes but will still fail to develop an equal number of eggs.…”