Life table characteristics of Aedes aegypti (Diptera:Culicidae) from Saudi Arabia

Aedes aegypti (= Stegomyia aegypti) mosquito is a world vector of important arboviral diseases like dengue and Rift Valley fever. Despite its wide distribution in the western and southern regions of Saudi Arabia, where dengue outbreaks have occurred, its ecology is largely unknown. In this study we report on the main life table developmental attributes of a laboratory colony of Ae. aegypti reared from field-collected larvae from Madinah Province, west of Saudi Arabia. Females were maintained on daily blood meal and sugar. The female fecundity was ~62 eggs/female at an overall rate of 72% hatchability. The mean time needed for eggs to hatch into larvae was 4.5 d. The mean pupation time (P50) was 11.53 days (d). The proportion of immature survivorships were 0.69 for 1(st) larva to pupa (P/I), 0.98 for pupa to adult (A/P) and an overall 0.67 for 1(st) larva to adult (A/I). Males emerged faster than females with mean emergence time (E50) of 12.83 and 15.31 d, respectively. The average developmental velocity (V) showed that males (V= 0.081) developed faster than females (V= 0.068). The male/female sex ratio at adult emergence was 0.48, and insignificantly different from the 1:1 ratio. The adult mean life expectancy at emergence (eo) was 17.14 d for females compared to 9.59 d for males. The net reproductive rate (Ro) was 101.04 and the intrinsic rate of increase (rm) was 0.15 with a mean generation time (G) of 30.7 d. The instantaneous mean of birth (B) and death rate (D) were 0.30 and 0.15, respectively, with rm/B of 0.529 and B/D of 2.281. Compared to other Ae. aegypti strains from different geographic and ecological settings, the Saudi strain had a relatively low colonization potential. This is the first report on life table characteristics for Ae. aegypti from the Arabian Peninsula, and provides base-line information for wider studies on its natural populations. This is particularly important for understanding its population dynamics in relation to dengue transmission and control under regional conditions.