Reference : Biol. Bull., 145 : 127-139. (August, 1973) BLOOD-FEEDING BEHAVIOR OF ADULT AEDES AEGYPTI MOSQUITOES x JACK COLVARD JONES 2 AND DANA RICHARD PILITT Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742 Of all the complex actions which mosquitoes perform in their lives, none are of such great interest to human beings as the blood-feeding behavior of the adult females. Except for the facts that the males do not pierce the skin to take blood and that the females readily do so, some of the simplest and most interesting features of blood-feeding have never been described or adequately studied, in spite of the fact that this act has been repeatedly observd since the first description by Reaumur (1738). The most detailed information on blood feeding in mosquitoes is given in Christophers' (1960) review. No one investigator has examined the general problem of blood-feeding behavior of any one species of mosquito so that our current knowledge is based on a series of isolated observations by many workers using different species. Since the work of Robinson (1939) on Anopheles, ap-parently no one has studied the effects of experimental surgery on the mechanism of fascicular insertion by mosquitoes. The present paper offers an overall picture of many aspects of blood feeding by known age individuals of a single species. METHOODS AND RESULTS Bangkok and U. S. Naval Medical (U.S.N.M.) strains of the Yellow Fever mosquito, Aedes (Stegomyia) aegypti (Linnaeus), were reared in an insectary held at 27 C and 80% relative humidity. The adults were aged by noting the time when they emerged from the pupal case. The degree of engorgement on fluid was estimated qualitatively using the visual scale of Pilitt and Jones (1972). Unless specified differently, 10 individuals of each sex were employed in each test using a 1 cu ft cage. Definitions Since adult mosquitoes feed only on substances which can be drawn into their alimentary canals by suction, the term feeding will be defined here to include the uptake of any fluid into the alimentary system via the food canal, the latter being formed within an intricate arrangement of various fine feeding stylets (the fascicle) which are ensheathed by a large labium. The fascicle and the labium together comprise the conspicuous proboscis, at the anterior end of which are two sensory-haired labella. The term probing has been used very loosely with regard to mosquitoes to refer to three very different acts: (1) a directional thrust of the whole proboscis 1 Supported by N.I.H. Grant AI08477; Scientific Article No. A 1823, and contribution No. 4624 of the Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station. 2 Supported by Career Development Award GM 21529. 127
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