Female Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) in Thailand rarely feed on sugar.

Female Aedes aegypti (L.) of two different body sizes and provided with different diets (20% sucrose, water only, or 20% sucrose + human blood) were marked and released together in a rural Thai village. Recaptured marked and unmarked (wild) adults were tested for fructose by the cold-anthrone reaction. Both released and wild females showed a low frequency of sugar feeding in nature; both small-bodied and large-bodied individuals failed to sugar feed significantly. Marked females released with sugar in their crop utilized this energy source over the following 2-3 d but failed to replenish it. In contrast, about one-third of wild, resting males showed evidence of recent sugar feeding. This indicated that the absence of plant sugar in females was not caused by a shortage of nectar sources in this rural domestic environment. Presumably, the nonutilization of plant sugar as an energy source increases the frequency of blood feeding and, therefore, the vectorial capacity of Ae. aegypti.