Blood Meal Identification from Florida Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) (Report‪)‬

Translation provided by the authors. Mosquitoes vector a variety of pathogens of medical and veterinary importance. Growing concern over the spread of West Nile virus (WNV) and related encephalitis viruses has prompted extensive investigation into the host-feeding patterns and preferences, as well as vectoral capacities, of pests now viewed mainly as cosmopolitan nuisances (Sardelis et al. 2001; Turell et al. 2005; Rodrigues & Maruniak 2006; Molaei et al. 2008). Host-feeding patterns and preferences vary according to a number of innate, seasonal, and environmental tendencies, including host availability and abundance, flight behavior and feeding periodicity of mosquitoes (Molaei et al. 2008) as well as by region (Turell et al. 2005). The current study sought to collect an array of mosquito species native to North Florida over a 12-month period and identify the range of vertebrate hosts that those mosquitoes fed on through blood meal analysis.