Fig. 3

Mosquito blood-meal volume depends on the number of mosquitoes per feeder. Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes (30 mosquitoes per paper cup in duplicate) were fed whole blood via glass mini-feeders and blood-meal volumes were determined. a Two dissection methods (abdomen or midguts) and two time-points (immediate and 3 h ± 0.5 h after feeding) were compared. b Based on mosquito body size by eye (Additional file 3: Figure S2) the blood-meal volume of fully blood-fed (FBF) and partially blood-fed (PBF) mosquitoes was determined in two sets of experiments (filled and open dots). Bars represent the median. The cut-off value of FBF mosquitoes was determined to be 2.5 µl, horizontal red dotted line. c In three independent experiments with three different blood donors, depicted in black, blue and red, plastic cages with 5, 10, 15, 20 or 50 mosquitoes were fed on a 60 µl blood-meal via a nano-feeder. Fully blood-fed (FBF) mosquitoes were analysed immediately after feeding (abdomen). Data from independent experiments were pooled per group for analysis. Lines indicate the mean blood volume and bars show the prevalence of FBF mosquitoes