The Sources of Energy for Flight in Mosquitoes

Reserve deposits of fat and glycogen are known to serve as sources of energy for flight in various insects. Among the Diptera only glycogen has been shown to serve this purpose ; the respiratory quotient of Drosophila in flight is close to 1·0 (Chadwick, 1947), and during flight glycogen disappears from the fat body but the deposits of fat are untouched (Wigglesworth, 1949). Tabanus has also been shown to use fat body glycogen during flight while apparently making no use of the fat deposits (Hocking, 1953).