Data from: Performance of five food regimes on Anopheles gambiae senso stricto larval rearing to adult emergence in Insectary

Background: Rearing of Anopheles gambiae s.s mosquitoes in insectary with
quality cheap food sources is of paramount importance for better and
healthy colony. This study evaluated larval survival and the development
rate of aquatic stages of An.gambiae s.s under five food regimes; tetramin
fish food (a standard insectary larval food), maize pollen, Cerelac, green
filamentous algae and dry powdered filamentous algae. Methods: Food
materials were obtained from different sources, cerelac was made locally,
fresh filamentous algae was taken from water bodies, dry filamentous algae
was ground to powder after it was dried under shade, and maize pollen was
collected from the flowering maize. Each food source type was used to feed
three densities of mosquito larvae 20, 60, and 100 in six replicates each.
Larval age structure was monitored daily until pupation and subsequently
adult emergence. Tetramin was used and taken as a standard food source for
An. gambiae s.s. larvae feeding in Insectary. Results: Larval survivorship
using maize pollen and Tetramin fish food was statistically insignificant
(P = 0.564). However when compared to other food regime survivorship was
significantly different with Tetramin fish food performing better than
cerelac (P<0.001), dry algae (P<0.001) and fresh algae
(P<0.001). The pupation rates and sex ratio of emerging adults had
significant differences among the food regimes. Conclusion: The findings
of this study have shown that maize pollen had closely similar nutritional
value for larval survivorship to tetramin fish food, a standard larvae
food in insectary. Further studies are required to assess the effect of
food sources on various life traits of the emerged adults.