Early reports demonstrated that most female Aedes aegypti are not receptive to mating until 48-72 hours after eclosion, although a small proportion of females will mate prior to this time. In the insect model Drosophila melanogaster, females require ~48 hours to become receptive and are poorly fertile if they mate before this time, with the remodeling of reproductive tract tissues of recently emerged females suggested to be a requirement for the optimal fertility of Drosophila females. Further, age-related declines in fertility have been shown in females of several insect species. Here, examined fertility in recently emerged females (young), and in females aged 2-3 weeks (old) to assess if recently emerged females were less fertile compared to more mature females (4-day old controls). We first determined the age (in hours) when females of our laboratory strain mated. As mosquitoes require a blood-meal to develop their eggs, we also determined when females first consumed a blood-meal. We found that females took a blood-meal several hours before they began to mate, and the quantity of blood consumed increased in the first hours post-eclosion. However, recently emerged females were similarly fertile to control, 4-day-old females, although they stored fewer sperm in their spermathecae. As expected, we observed age-related declines in female fertility, with old females laying fewer egg and storing fewer sperm compared to control females, although old females mated at similar frequencies and had similar blood-meal sizes compared to controls. Our results show that Ae. aegypti females do not become receptive to mating until ~48 hours after they emerge from the pupal stage, and are fertile after they become receptive to mating.
