Observations on the survival of Culicoides midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) under laboratory conditions

Observations on survival rate of Culicoides midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) collected from field, were recorded under different laboratory conditions viz. starvation in non-humid and humid chambers, sugar feeding through dried grapes and blood feeding. In starvation group, survival percentage was more in humid chambers (47.28%) compared to non-humid chambers (12.25%) after 48 hours. Culicoides midges showed high survival rate (33.52%) on sugar feeding when compared to blood feeding (15.78%) at 72 hours. The study indicated that the factors like humidity and availability of food enhances their survival period. These observations will help researchers for maintaining the colonies of Culicoides in laboratory for research, purposes.