Abstract
A laboratory colony of adult mosquitoes, Aedes albopictus (Skuse), was experimentally fed with royal jelly, a glandular secretion of the honey bee Apis mellifera L. Results indicated that mosquitoes, deprived of a blood meal, showed an increased tendency to develop mature ovaries and oviposit viable eggs as a result of feedings of increasing concentrations of royal jelly. This experiment was divided into two stages of observations as outlined below. The initial stage of this experiment was concerned with observations of accelerated follicular development as a result of royal jelly feedings at various concentrations. A total of 720 females and 360 males, which emerged within a 24 hour period, were maintained in equal numbers in 12 separate cages (25×25×25cm). Ten cages of mosquitoes were fed graded concentrations of royal jelly (0.5% to 20.0%). The remaining two cages of mosquitoes each received daily feedings of a 5% sugar solution, however, the mosquitoes in one of these cages were given a blood meal from a mouse on their first day after emergence. On the 8th day after emergence all of the female mosquitoes were dissected and stages of follicular development were recorded based upon the criterion of Christophers (1911). It was found that the percentage of mosquitoes which attained stage V of follicular development increased as a result of feedings of increasing concentrations of royal jelly. The second stage of this experiment was an attempt to determine the viability of mosquito eggs which had been oviposited following royal jelly feeding. A total of 600 female and 600 male mosquitoes were divided equally into 5 separate cages. Mosquitoes in three cages received royal jelly feedings in concentrations of 5,10,and 20% for three days, and the remaining two cages served as controls and received feedings of other diets for three days. After this initial three day period, approximately 40 females from each cage were placed in separate tubes containing water to facilitate oviposition. Royal jelly feeding was maintained for nine more days and on the 9th day the number of oviposited eggs was observed. Also, the degree of follicular development was examined by observing the number of follicles in each stage of develoment. It was found that mosquitoes were able to oviposit viable eggs as a result of royal jelly feeding.
