Rate of Digestion of Vertebrate Blood in Aedes Aegypti (L.)

Abstract

At 4-hr intervals from 24 to 80 hrs after mosquitoes fed on blood, their stomachs were examined by a sensitive precipitin-test system, for undigested serum protein. Mated nulliparous females 2 to 26 days old, 6-day-old virgin females, and 10-day-old and 18-day-old parous females were compared. Females 2 and 4 days old digested their blood meal faster than did females 6 to 26 days old. Unmated females and parous females digested their blood meal slower than mated females and nulliparous females of the same age.