Quiescent egg viability

Quiescent egg viability was investigated during the course of 90 days. For each strain, 3 groups of 100 inseminated females (3–5 days-old) were fed human blood and individually transferred to Petri dishes, internally covered with water-dampened filter paper, so they could oviposit. Quiescent eggs were kept at 26 ± 1 °C and 80 ± 10% RH for various periods of time (24 h, one week, and then weekly until 90 days), after which they were submitted to viability assays. Experiments consisted of randomly selecting 30 eggs from each group of females and checking the hatching rate after complete immersion in 0.15% yeast solution for 24 h [37].