Physiological Age of Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) and Observations on Partial Blood-Feeding

Abstract

Aedes, Culex, Coquillettidia, Anopheles, and Psorophora females were obtained by human-bait capture, dry ice-baited light traps, sweeping, and from red boxes at sites in south-central and eastern New York State and in southern Connecticut. Physiological age, determined by the Polovodova method, was assessed in 2471 females; the stage of follicle development was recorded in 57% of these specimens. Females of several species completed 2 ovarian cycles and initiated the 3rd. Nullipars with stage I–II or II terminal follicles were frequently encountered; the data suggest that populations of all species studied were anautogenous. Partial (nonreplete) blood-feeding occurred in 121 nulliparous and parous specimens; terminal follicles in these females had developed from stage I up to and including stage III. Serological tests disclosed that 83% of the partiallyfed females in Connecticut had acquired blood from mammals and that nulliparous and (or) parous specimens of Aedes canadensis, Ae. sollicitans, Ae. stimulans, Ae. vexans, Coquillettidia perturbans and Psorophora ferox had fed on dogs. Ae. canadensis exhibited an omnivorous feeding pattern by acquiring blood meals from birds and reptiles as well as from a variety of mammalian hosts.