Longevity and Egg Production of Female Bed Bugs, Cimex lectularius, Fed Various Blood Fractions and Other Substances1

Abstract

Female bed bugs, Cimex lectularius L., were starved for a week or more after their emergence as adults, then were fed artificially through prepared mouse skins, and were mated within 2 hours after feeding. Substances offered them for feeding included: citrated whole rabbit blood; whole rabbit blood with added sucrose; whole rabbit blood diluted 9:1 or 1:1 with insect Ringer's solution; whole rabbit blood diluted 1:1 with distilled water; rabbit erythrocytes in distilled water; rabbit blood plasma; calf blood serum; cow's milk; and insect and mammalian Ringer's solutions. Toxic substances apparently developed quickly in stored blood. Whole blood stored 4 days was lethal to the bugs, as was 2-day-old blood mixed with distilled water and 3-day-old blood with added sucrose. Blood mixed with insect Ringer and stored 2 days was much less toxic; bugs fed the 9:1 mixture showed 80% survival after 12 days, and had the highest average egg production (5.4 eggs) among the experimental groups. Second highest production (4.2 eggs) was by the bugs fed calf serum, but survival was only 37% in this group. No other group had an average production higher than 1.5 eggs, as against normal production of 10-15 eggs by females fed directly on rabbits. Highest survival (88%-100%) after 12 days was found in the groups given the Ringer solutions alone, but egg production by these groups was virtually nil. The commonest cause of death was rupture of the foregut, with consequent leakage of its contents into the hemocoel.