Sand fly blood meal volumes and their relation to female body weight under experimental conditions.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Sand fly females require a blood meal to develop eggs. The size of the blood meal is crucial for fecundity and affects the dose of pathogens acquired by females when feeding on infected hosts or during experimental membrane-feeding.

Methods

Under standard laboratory conditions, we compared blood meal volumes taken by females of ten sand fly species from four genera: Phlebotomus, Lutzomyia, Migonomyia, and Sergentomyia. The amount of ingested blood was determined using a haemoglobin assay. Additionally, we weighed unfed sand flies to calculate the ratio between body weight and blood meal weight.

Results

The mean blood meal volume ingested by sand fly females ranged from 0.47 to 1.01 µl. Five species, Phlebotomus papatasi, P. duboscqi, Lutzomyia longipalpis,

SUBMITTER: Volfova V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11342606 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature