Repeated Egg Clutches without Blood in the Pitcher-Plant Mosquito13

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Abstract
Non-hematophagous Wyeomyia smithii (Coquillett) (Diptera: Culicidae) from Massachusetts oviposit successive egg clutches in discrete bouts at 1–3 d intervals. Four lines of evidence indicate that repeated ovarian developmental cycles are responsible for this cyclic ovipositional pattern: (1) shortly after the deposition of an egg clutch (> 1 d) the ovaries are solely in early stages of development and progressively later stages of maturation occur 2 and 3 days after oviposition; (2) ovipositing females mature more eggs than individuals prevented from ovipositing; (3) ovipositing females produce more eggs than they have ovarioles; (4) the number of dilatations in the ovariolar pedicel corresponds to the oviposition bouts of individual females. Wyeomyia smithii from Florida produce only one egg clutch autogenously with subsequent ovarian development dependent on blood-feeding. Whereas northern females partition their total reproductive effort into a relatively large initial clutch followed by 2–4 smaller ones, southern females which blood-feed produce egg clutches of size comparable to the initial autogenous clutch.