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The influence of nutrition on egg-production and longevity in unmated female body-lice (Pediculus humanus corporis: Anoplura)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

A. J. Haddow
A. J. Haddow
Affiliation:
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
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Extract

1. Isolated unmated female body-lice were worn in pillboxes between the skin and the clothes. They were kept constantly on the body but, by a simple device, groups of ten were permitted feeding periods of different length. These groups were fed for 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 and 24 hr. per day respectively. Another group of ten were never allowed to feed after the last moult.

2. Some of the figures for egg yield were high. Lice in the 24 hr. group were able to maintain a rate of ten eggs per day for 4−5 days at a time.

3. No significant difference in longevity or rate of egg-laying was found to exist between the 12, 16, 20 and 24 hr. groups nor between the 4 and 8 hr. groups but a pronounced and significant difference exists between the 8 and 12 hr. groups. Below 12 hr. there is a sharp fall in longevity and rate of egg production. The unfed group all died, without laying, on the third day.

4. The rate of laying as shown by the mode increases progressively with increase in time allowed daily for feeding.

5. With regard to the mean eggs per louse the position is less clear. It is felt that the 24 hr. group may differ significantly from the 12, 16 and 20 hr. groups but this is uncertain.

Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , March 1941 , pp. 40 - 46
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1941

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References

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