Exploiting nutrition for sex separation in Culex quinquefasciatus (Say) species of mosquitoes

The experiment was conducted to exploit nutrition for sex separation in Culex quinquefasciatus at Nuclear Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA), Peshawar during 2015. Seven different diets with various concentrations comprising of carbohydrates and protein sources in individual/mixed form were compared with standard diet of IAEA. Maximum pupae size of 3.00 and 3.51 mm for male, 4.01 and 4.40 mm for female, adult’s emergence of 45.15 and 70.10% for male were recorded when IAEA diet was tested at 1 and 2% concentration, respectively. Female adult’s emergence of 55.17 and 60.25% was recorded when chickpea was fed to larvae at both the concentrations, respectively. Shorter larval period of 7.06 and 7.00 days was noted in larvae nourished by IAEA diet at both concentrations, respectively. Carbohydrates based diet favored male size while, protein skewed in favor of female. It is concluded that the finding on the sexual dimorphism can be exploited for the sex separation of Culex and other species of mosquitoes for the successful application of Sterile Insect Techniques.