Data from: Sugar feeding impacts reproductive success and progeny development in <i>Culicoides sonorensis</i> biting midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae)

<p dir="ltr">This study investigated the impact of sugar feeding on the reproductive success and progeny development of <i>Culicoides sonorensis </i>biting midges. Like many hematophagous insects, <i>Culicoides </i>adults typically sugar feed for energy during their adult stage in addition to females taking blood meals for the development of eggs. It is unclear whether sugar feeding solely helps with energetically expensive behaviors like flying and host-seeking or if it could also help facilitate reproductive and progeny success.</p><p dir="ltr">Freshly eclosed colony midges were provided either water or 10% sucrose for the first 3 days post-eclosion. On day 3, a blood meal was provided to both cohorts of midges, the cups of midges were anesthetized, and blood fed females were separated into individual cups with oviposition substrate present. The survival of male and female midges and the proportion that blood fed per treatment are reported on the "Pre_Bloodmeal_Cups.csv" data file.</p><p dir="ltr">The individual females were then provided either water or 10% sucrose after the blood meal, leading to four total treatments depending on the substance provided prior to and after the blood meal: sucrose-sucrose, water-water, water-sucrose, sucrose-water. Oviposition substrates were monitored daily for oviposition and data were recorded on the "Sugar_AgDataCommons.csv" data file. Each row in the "Sugar_AgDataCommons.csv" data file represents a single blood fed female midge and her oviposition information. Upon oviposition, the date was recorded (FirstEggsDate) and the number of days between blood feeding and egg deposition was calculated (EggDays). The total number of eggs was also recorded (Eggs_Laid). Once eggs were observed hatching, the date was recorded (Hatch_Date) and the number of days between oviposition and hatch was calculated (HatchDays). Once hatching was complete, the total number of eggs that were hatched and unhatched were recorded and the proportion of eggs that hatched from the full egg batch was calculated (Hatch_Proportion). A subset of eggs were transferred to an agar larval slant prior to hatching to observe impacts on larvae. The total number of eggs that hatched and resulted in larvae in the larval slants was recorded (Larvae_Start).</p><p dir="ltr">The final data file "Offspring_Data_AgDataCommons.csv" includes data from the larvae that were moved to the larval slants for development. Each row in the "Offspring_Data_AgDataCommons.csv" dataset is one individual midge offspring from the parental females in one of the four treatments. This includes the plate #, which corresponds to the Cup_ID variable in the "Sugar_AgDataCommons.csv" file as that plate contained the offspring from that parental female. The "Offspring_Data_AgDataCommons.csv" file also includes the egg hatch date, eclosion date, length of the juvenile period (Juv_Length, calculated as the time in days from egg hatch to eclosion), sex, and the winglength in mm for each individual offspring.</p>

Tags: biting-midges, culicoides, progeny-development, reproductive-physiology, sugar-feeding
Organization: Department of Agriculture