Abstract
OVARIAN maturation by mosquitoes and other haematophagous Diptera without a prior blood meal is called autogeny, while the term anautogeny applies to those cases where blood is necessary. Many populations of the saltmarsh mosquito, Aedes taeniorhynchus, contain both autogenous and anautogenous females1–2. Moreover, within this species there are two types of autogenous females : (1) those that need a stimulus from mating to produce eggs autogenously and (2) those that lack this requirement3. We report that autogenous egg production associated with mating is triggered by a substance from the male accessory gland. The stimulation of normal oviposition behaviour and the termination of sexual receptivity in the female mosquito are also caused by a male accessory gland substance which is introduced into the female during mating4,5. Both of these responses are uniformly exhibited by all females of several species6.
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O'MEARA, G., EVANS, D. Autogeny in saltmarsh mosquitoes induced by a substance from the male accessory gland. Nature 267, 342–344 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1038/267342a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/267342a0
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