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Arrest, resorption, or maturation of oöcytes in Aedes aegypti : dependence on the quantity of blood and the interval between blood meals
Author(s) -
LEA ARDEN O.,
BRIEGEL HANS,
LEA HILDA M.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
physiological entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.693
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1365-3032
pISSN - 0307-6962
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3032.1978.tb00164.x
Subject(s) - vitellogenesis , yolk , blood meal , biology , meal , aedes aegypti , ovary , medicine , endocrinology , zoology , anatomy , andrology , oocyte , microbiology and biotechnology , larva , food science , embryo , ecology
. After emergence, the follicles of A. aegypti double in length and the oöcytes may deposit a small amount of yolk, but within 2 days growth is arrested. Renewed growth and vitellogenesis, as well as the number of eggs finally produced, depends on the quantity of blood ingested. All females, given either a small (1 μl) or large (4 μl) meal of rat blood by enema, began yolk deposition in a nearly equal number of oöcytes, and each oöcyte had about the same amount of yolk 8 h later. Within 48 h, females fed 4 μl had each produced more than 100 eggs, whereas females fed 1 μl either had continued yolk deposition in some oöcytes, while most degenerated, or had all re‐entered oögenic arrest. Consequently, 48 h after the 1 μl meal, a female had either c. 50 or 0 eggs. Even by 14 h after a 1‐μl meal, females were either committed to re‐enter oögenic arrest or to complete maturation of some oöcytes and resorb the yolk of others. This was shown by removing and examining one ovary 14 h after a blood meal and then giving a second blood meal. The second meal stimulated meal maturation in the remaining ovary, but only in those females whose oöcytes had been in oögenic arrest when the first ovary was examined; the second meal had no effect on females whose first ovary had contained both vitellogenic and degenerating oöcytes. Oösorption was not reversed by a second blood meal. Our results do not support the hypothesis that the female ‘evaluates’ the ingested meal and begins vitellogenesis in an ‘appropriate’ number of oöcytes. The results demonstrate that the ovary is an unreliable indicator of the frequency of blood‐feeding, when females take a small meal.