A membrane and blood-free approach to rear adult Aedes albopictus

Most artificial dietary systems for feeding mosquitoes require a membrane feeder, host cues, phosphate saline buffers and a phagostimulant. These multicomponent feeders are complex, expansive and cumbersome that requires fully trained personnel. The objective of the present is to develop a simple sugar assisted protein (SAP) diet for the egg production of Aedes albopictus. The present study assessed the potential use of SAP dietary system on the engorgement, fecundity, preference of diet components and production of multiple generations of Ae. albopictus. Our data show that the female mosquitoes have strongly preferred a diet with: (i) a combination of sugar and protein over the individual component, and (ii) water over PBS (phosphate buffered saline) buffer as a carrier, whereas adenosine triphosphate (ATP) was not required as a phagostimulant. Based on our optimization data, the SAP diets (10-20% bovine serum albumin in 5% sucrose aqueous solution) do not require chemo-attractive lure, phagostimulant ATP, temperature and membrane feeding components. Female mosquitoes readily engorge on SAP diets and show similar rates of survival and fecundity compared to those when blood-fed on live animals. In addition, the number of eggs produced by female mosquitoes fed on SAP diets kept consistent for 10 consecutive generations. Our results indicate that SAP diet is a potential alternative against blood feeding that is simple and cost-effective diets for Ae. albopictus colony maintenance and to support large scale mass- production for experimental and other purposes.