title: Substitute blood meal for investigating and maintaining Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae).
abstract: A defined substitute blood meal has been developed for feeding Aedes aegypti (L.), a mosquito that normally requires a vertebrate blood meal to produce eggs. This substitute blood meal is a simple mixture of proteins, with salts and adenosine triphosphate added to induce gorging. Protein appears to be the only nutritional requirement. The mixture consists of gamma-globulins to initiate the hormonal responses necessary for normal egg development, hemoglobin as a visual marker of feeding, and albumin as a concentrated source of protein to achieve egg yields equivalent to those from blood-fed controls. Ae. aegypti has been reared successfully for eight generations on this substitute blood meal.
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853.
authors.forename: P H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Kogan
mesh_terms: D000330:Aedes / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D000821:Animal Feed; D000818:Animals; D001769:Blood; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D010058:Oviposition / Q000502:physiology*