Inhibitory regulation of corpus allatum activity in mosquitoes

Abstract In order to determine whether juvenile hormone (JH) in mosquitoes is regulated by ovarian inhibitory feedback, we implanted JH-sensitive pupal ovaries into adult mosquitoes and observed subsequent ovarian maturation. Removal or destruction of resting-stage ovaries (previously JH-stimulated) resulted in JH-stimulated development of implanted pupal ovaries. Ablation experiments demonstrated the ovary-corpus allatum sequence of maturation, and application of exogenous hormone analogs confirmed that development of implanted pupal ovaries is JH-dependent. Incidental observations indicated that ovaries of preapolytic pupae produce a hormone that causes more mature ovaries to degenerate. We concluded that corpus allatum activity in Aedes aegypti is regulated by ovarian feedback inhibition.