Enforced Egg-Retention and its Effects on Vitellogenesis in the Mosquito, Aedes Aegypti

Abstract

Enforced retenion of mature eggs by Aedes aegypti (L.) tends to inhibit the initiatIOn of the subsequent vitellogenic cycle when these females take a 2nd blood meal. While normal blood-feeding occurred in these females, the time when maximum vitellogenic initiation occurred was distinctly delayed and depressed when compared to controls which had oviposited. Approximately 50% of the females which did not initiate vitellogenesis after the 2nd blood meal still developed their oocytes to a stage intermediate between the resting and mature stages. This may represent vitellogenesis, begun after blood feeding, but not completled because of hormone deficiency.