On the developmental velocity of Wucheria bancrofti larvae in vector mosquitoes of different susceptibility to filarial infections.

Abstract

The developmental velocity of Wucheria bancrofti larvae was investigated in mosquito strains with different susceptibility to this filarial species. High susceptibility of the vector strains favoured fast filarial development, e.g. between 17.1 and 25.9% of all discovered larvae on day 13 p.i. had already migrated to the head and mouth parts of the more and partly even highly susceptible Anopheles gambiae, Culex pipiens quinquefasciatus and Aedes aegypti, respectively, whereas between 0 and 3.4% infective larvae had reached the head in the less susceptible Culex strains. On day 15 p.i. in all mosquito strains the majority of the larvae had reached infectivity.