REPRODUCTIVE FITNESS AND SURVIVORSHIP OF AEDES-AEGYPTI (DIPTERA, CULICIDAE) MAINTAINED ON BLOOD, WITH FIELD OBSERVATIONS FROM THAILAND

Daily survivorship and fecundity of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes were moni tored for cohorts provided with five nutritional treatments: water, 2% sucrose, blood from a live chicken plus water, blood plus 2% sucrose, and blood alone. The median mortality time (LT50) for these females w as 6, 54, 16, 12, and 29 d, respectively. There was no significant dif ference in the number of eggs laid by females in any of the treatments containing a host. Females maintained on blood alone laid as many or more eggs during their lifetime as females with access to sugar who ha d a greater life expectancy. Males maintained on sugar alone survived significantly longer than those in any of the other treatments. Large- and small-bodied, sugar-starved Ae. aegypti females that were marked, released, and recaptured in a Thai village survived as well as the re plicate cohorts that received sugar or sugar plus blood during the 36 +/- 12 h period from emergence until their release. These results indi cate that Ae. aegypti females live longer in the laboratory if they ar e provided a source of carbohydrate, but the increased survival associ ated with sugar feeding does not increase reproductive success.