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10-Minute Presentation

Medical, Urban, and Veterinary Entomology

10-min: MUVE, Mosquito Biology and Ecology

Drought increases the prevalence of multiple blood feeding events in mosquitoes

Tuesday, November 12, 2024
9:24 AM – 9:36 AM MST
Location: Phoenix Convention Center, 222 A
Oral Presentation
Mosquitoes must survive periodic droughts to live in semi-arid areas with humans. Under dry conditions, mosquitoes have been documented to increase blood feeding, but how this occurs after an initial blood meal has yet to be examined. After an initial blood meal, exposure to dry conditions increased blood feeding in mosquitoes by nearly two-fold. Chronic blood feeding allowed mosquitoes to survive twenty days without access to water sources, suggesting multiple bloodmeals as a potential bridge to survive dry periods. This second feeding did not impact the eggs produced, highlighting this is for hydration. The exposure to dry conditions after a blood meal increased mosquito activity, decreased sleep levels and resulted in a return of CO2 sensing before egg deposition. This increase in blood feeding and survival during dry periods is predicted to increase the probability of pathogen transmission and explain the elevated levels of specific arbovirus cases during dry conditions. Our studies expand on establishing how dry periods alter mosquito blood feeding and how this contributes to altered vectorial capacity and disease transmission scales.