Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T12:00:40.419Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Studies on the Responses of the female Aëdes Mosquito

Part VIII.*—The Attractiveness of Beef Blood to Aëdes Aegypti (L.)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

L. Burgess  and
A. W. A. Brown
L. Burgess
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario.
A. W. A. Brown
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The responses of females of Aëdes aegypti (L.) to beef blood have been investigated. Paired comparisons were made of the numbers of mosquitos attracted to test and control materials.

Vapours emanating from the heparinised blood were found to be significantly more attractive than water vapour in an olfactometer. When the blood vapour was passed through an aqueous solution of Ba(OH)2 this attractiveness disappeared.

Exposure of heparinised blood on filter paper proved it to be two to four times as attractive as water or washed corpuscles suspended in saline. Plasma proved to be 4·7 times as attractive as water, indicating that the attraction of blood lies entirely in the plasma.

Treatment of blood with BaCl2 and a vacuum, thus rendering it incapable of evolving CO2, removed its attractiveness to mosquitos. Treatment with vacuum alone, which may be expected to remove the volatile substances, did not completely remove the attractiveness; nor did the treatment with BaCl2 alone, which removes the bicarbonates in the blood.

The attractiveness of blood was completely removed by desiccation and was not returned by remoistening. No attractive substance was isolated in an ether extract of blood.

When CO2-freed blood was treated with gaseous CO2 its attractiveness was significantly increased. When the treatment was such as to restore the normal CO2-producing capacity, the attractiveness was one-half that of whole blood. The attractiveness of whole blood was not increased by adding excess CO2.

It is concluded that the CO2 in beef blood is a definite element in its attractiveness, though probably not the most important one.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , December 1957 , pp. 783 - 793
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1957

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brown, A. W. A., Sarkaria, D. S. & Thompson, R. P. (1951). Studies on the responses of the female Aëdes mosquito. Part I. The search for attractant vapours.—Bull. ent. Res., 42, pp. 105–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeLong, D. M. & others. (1949). Insect behaviour: mosquito attraction and repellency.—Final Summary Report, Project 272, Office of the Quarter-master General, Washington.Google Scholar
Howlett, F. M. (1910). The influence of temperature upon the biting of mosquitoes.—Parasitology, 3, pp. 479–484.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laarman, J. J. (1955). The host-seeking behaviour of the malaria mosquito Anopheles maculipennis atroparvus.—D.Sc. thesis, Univ. Leiden, Uitgevars-Maatschappij, Utrecht. 144 pp.Google Scholar
Reuter, J. (1936). Oriënteerend onderzoek naar de oozaak van het gedrag van Anopheles maculipennis Meigen bij de voedselkeuze.—Proefschr. Rijksuniv. Leiden, 118 pp.Google Scholar
Rudolfs, W. (1922). Chemotropism of mosquitoes.—Bull. N. J. agric. Exp. Sta., no. 367, 23 pp.Google Scholar
Schaerffenberg, B. & Kupka, E. (1951). Untersuchungen über die geruchliche Orientierung blutsaugender Insekten. I. Über die Wirkung eines Blutduftstoffes auf Stomoxys und Culex.—Öst. zool. Z., 3, pp. 410–424.Google Scholar
van Thiel, P. H. (1937). Quelles sont les excitations incitant l'Anopheles maculipennis atroparvus à visitor et à piquer l'homme ou le betail?—Bull. Soc. Path, exot., 30, pp. 193–203.Google Scholar
Van Thiel, P. H. & Weurman, C. (1947). L'attraction exercée sur Anopheles maculipennis atroparvus par l'acide carbonique dans l'appareil de choix II.—Acta trop., 4, pp. 1–9.Google Scholar