The effect of blood source on the fitness of the Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus

The physiological study of hematophagous insects such as mosquitoes requires maintaining the colony in the laboratory, which controls the environmental conditions such as photoperiod, temperature, and relative humidity.  Currently, various species of mosquitoes are easily maintained in the laboratory via artificial blood feeding system using animal blood such as rabbit or others.  We hypothesized that the fitness of the Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, might be affected by different blood sources.  The rate of success blood feeding, the number of eggs laid, egg hatching rate, and developmental period were measured to access the effect of different animal blood including horse, cow, pig, and sheep, which were prepared by treatment of anticoagulants or defibrillation.  Mosquitoes were provided by each animal blood including/excluding ATP at different time (08:00 or 18:00) of day.  Female mosquitoes successfully finished to have blood meals containing ATP by 10~38.3% higher compared to ATP-free blood.  The number of eggs laid by female mosquitoes fed bovine blood at 18:00 was significantly higher compared to those by female mosquitoes fed horse and pig blood at 18:00.  The hatching rate was not significantly different among treatments.  Offspring of female mosquitoes fed at 18:00 underwent significantly shorter developmental period (eggs to pupae) compared to those of female mosquitoes fed at 08:00.  Taken together, female mosquitoes fed bovine blood in the late afternoon laid more eggs, which underwent relatively shorter time to finish their development.