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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.
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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

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References

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