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Sand fly blood meal volumes and their relation to female body weight under experimental conditions
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Sand fly blood meal volumes and their relation to female body weight under experimental conditions
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Journal Article
Sand fly blood meal volumes and their relation to female body weight under experimental conditions
2024
Overview
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
,
Sergentomyia minuta
, and
S. schwetzi
, consumed about double the blood meal size compared to
Migonomyia migonei
. The mean body weight of females ranged from 0.183 mg in
S. minuta
to 0.369 mg in
P. duboscqi
. In males, the mean body weight ranged from 0.106 mg in
M. migonei
to 0.242 mg in
P. duboscqi
. Males were always lighter than females, with the male-to-female weight ratio ranging from 75% (in
Phlebotomus argentipes
) to 52% (in
Phlebotomus tobbi
).
Conclusions
Females of most species took a blood meal 2.25–3.05 times their body weight. Notably, the relatively tiny females of
P. argentipes
consumed blood meals 3.34 times their body weight. The highest (Mbl/Mf) ratios were found in both
Sergentomyia
species studied; females of
S. minuta
and
S. schwetzi
took blood meals 4.5–5 times their body weight. This parameter is substantially higher than that reported for mosquitoes and biting midges.
Graphical Abstract
