Azubuike Christian Ukubuiwe¹ , Israel Kayode Olayemi¹ , Innocent Chukwuemeka James Omalu² , Francis Ofurum Arimoro³ , Bulus Musa Baba⁴ , Chinenye Catherine Ukubuiwe⁵

Applied Entomology Unit, Department of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria
Author    Correspondence author
Molecular Entomology, 2018, Vol. 9, No. 1   doi: 10.5376/me.2018.09.0001
Received: 02 Jan., 2018    Accepted: 26 Mar., 2018    Published: 02 Apr., 2018

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Ukubuiwe A.C., Olayemi I.K., Omalu I.C.J., Arimoro F.O., Baba B.M., and Ukubuiwe C.C, 2018, Influence of variable photoperiod on life-stages mobilization of teneral reserves in Culex quinquefasciatus (diptera: Culicidae): implication for environmental manipulation for vector control, Molecular Entomology, 9(1): 1-10 (doi: 10.5376/me.2018.09.0001)

The influence of photoperiod on teneral reserve accumulation across life stages of Culex quinquefasciatus was investigated in this study. Day-old larvae of the mosquito were exposed to five simulated photoperiodic regimens, namely 0, 6, 12, 18 and 24 hours of Light (hL) and a Control (prevailing 13 hL). Rearing of immature stages and quantification of teneral components (lipid, glucose, protein and glycogen) at the life stages were done following standard protocols. Results revealed significant effects of photoperiod on teneral components in all life stages. Generally, there were significant increase in all teneral components as the larvae progressed from L1 to L4 instars, with subsequent reduction at pupal and adult stages. The quantities of teneral components also exhibited an inverse relationship with photo-duration, with glycogen and protein more distributed than lipid and glucose. Average immature component ranged from 12.05±0.30 to 23.95±0.15, 7.66±0.43 to 13.62±0.29, 38.06±0.70 to 61.97±0.44, and 20.19±0.58 to 38.30±0.47 µg /mosquito, for lipid, glucose, glycogen and protein, respectively. While Adult values were, respectively, ranged from 10.47±0.36 to 25.29±0.99, 6.46±0.30 to 15.22±0.90, 33.54±1.94 to 67.66±0.49 and 17.29±0.45 to 41.04±0.24 µg/mosquito. The present study showed that photoperiod had significant influence on teneral reserves of Cx. quinquefasciatus mosquito.

Lipid; Protein; Photophase; Biological Fitness; Physiology