Sugar meal composition of five north central Florida mosquito species (Diptera: Culicidae) as determined by gas chromatography.

Gas chromatography was used to analyze sugars found in individual crops fed on by wild caught adult Anopheles quadrimaculatus s.l. (Say), Coquillettidia perturbans (Walker), Culex nigripalpus Theobald, Culiseta melanura (Coquillett), and Psorophora ferox (von Humboldt) from several north central Florida locations. A wide range of sugars was found, including fructose, glucose, sucrose, maltose, turanose, melezitose, trehalose, raffinose, erlose, and traces of arabinose, rhamnose, and several unknowns. The frequency of individuals testing positive for crop sugars ranged from 9-10% in An. quadrimaculatus and Ps. ferox to 46% in Cq. perturbans. Based on the presence of melezitose or erlose in the crop, honeydew feeding was shown to be an important dietary component in An. quadrimaculatus (57%), Cs. melanura (31%), Cx. nigripalpus (15%), Cq. perturbans (10%), and Ps. ferox (7%). Gas chromatography of crude crop contents is a rapid one-step process that can address important questions such as the source and occurrence of sugar feeding in Diptera. Unique sugar feeding field observations were recorded for several mosquito species.