Effects of larval and adult diet plus mating/insemination upon ovarian development of laboratory-reared Anopheles pharoensis in Egypt.

A study was conducted in Egypt on the role of sugar and blood in oogenesis of Anopheles pharoensis. Also studied was the significance of mating vs. nonmating on oocyte maturity. Ovarian development in this species was influenced by larval diet. Those with inadequate larval nutrition emerged at Christophers' stage I and required either a sugar or blood meal to reach the resting stage. A subsequent complete blood meal was needed to take these females to stage V of Christophers (gravid). Females which emerged from well-nourished larvae were at the resting stage and became gravid via a single complete blood meal. Mating did not effect ovarian development since both inseminated and virgin females developed in like manner. At emergence, sugar feeding followed by a complete blood meal seems the best way for An. pharoensis to mature a first batch of eggs.