Identification of blood meals of blood-sucking arthropods

The identification of blood meals of blood-sucking arthropods requires a test which is sensitive enough to detect even partially digested blood and specific enough to identify the various hosts. The technique of preference is the precipitin test which makes use of the specific combination of the serum proteins of the blood. The preparation of the blood meal extract and the procedure for the absorption of the antisera is described and various methods of performing the precipitin test are mentioned. When the hosts involved are closely related to each other it is necessary to use the inhibition test. The blood meal will specifically inhibit, under specified conditions, the agglutination of tanned and sensitized red blood cells which is caused by a suitable antiserum. The procedure adopted for the identification of blood meals derived from a large variety of hosts is described in detail.