The mean wing lengths of mosquitoes from the treatment level of low larval plus poor adult nutrition (LL+PA), high larval plus poor adult nutrition (HL+PA), low larval plus good adult nutrition (LL+GA) and high larval plus good adult nutrition (HL+GA) was 2.47 ± 0.02 SE mm, 2.78 ± 0.01 SE mm, 2.50 ± 0.02 SE mm and 2.75 ± 0.01 SE mm, respectively (Table 1; Fig. 2). There were significant differences between the wing lengths of mosquitoes from the low and high larval diet treatments regardless of their adult diet treatments (pairwise t-test, LL+PA vs HL+PA, p<0.001; LL+PA vs HL+GA, p<0.001; LL+GA vs HL+PA, p<0.001; LL+GA vs HL+GA, p<0.001; Fig. 2), indicating that larval food quantity significantly affected adult size. As wing length is fixed in adults, no difference was found between adult treatments when larval treatments were the same (pairwise t test, HL+PA vs HL+GA, p=0.79; LL+PA vs LL+GA, p=1.0; Fig. 2).
The mean fecundity of mosquitoes from the treatment level LL+PA, HL+PA, LL+GA and HL+GA was 35.80 ± 4.06 SE, 80.15 ± 2.45 SE, 56.25 ± 1.79 SE and 90.76 ± 2.26 SE, respectively (Table 1; Fig. 3). There was a significant difference between any two levels of the treatment (pairwise t test, LL+PA vs HL+PA, p<0.001; LL+PA vs LL+GA, p<0.001; LL+PA vs HL+GA, p<0.001; LL+GA vs HL+PA, p<0.001; LL+GA vs HL+GA, p<0.001; Fig. 3) except the one between HL+PA and HL+GA (pairwise t test, p=0.06; Fig. 3), indicating that both the larval and adult diets affected mosquito egg-laying. In addition, the number of eggs that were oviposed positively increased with nutrition combinations ranked from the worst (LL+PA) to the best (HL+GA) combination. However, there was no statistically significant interaction between larval and adult treatments on fecundity (estimate ± SE = 0.99 ± 6.97, t= 0.14, p= 0.89), suggesting that the effects of larval and adult nutrition on fecundity were additive rather than synergystic.
The mean post blood-feeding longevity of mosquitoes from LL+ PA, HL+PA, LL+GA, and HL+GA was 20.58 ± 2.62 SE d, 20.57 ± 2.25 SE d, 36.84 ± 1.42 SE d and 30.69 ± 2.08 SE d, respectively (Table 1; Fig. 4). There was a significant difference between the poor and good adult treatments regardless of larval treatments (pairwise t test, LL+PA vs HL+GA, p=0.007; LL+GA vs HL+PA, p<0.001; HL+PA vs HL+GA, p=0.006; LL+PA vs LL+GA, p<0.001; Fig. 4), indicating that adult food quality significantly affected adult longevity. No difference was found between larval treatments when adult treatments were the same (pairwise t test, LL+PA vs HL+PA, p=1.0; LL+GA vs HL+GA, p=0.31, Fig. 4), indicating that larval food quantity did not affect adult survival. Survival curves also showed that there is significant difference between HL+GA and HL+PA (z = 2.39, p = 0.017; Fig. 5a) and between LL+GA and LL+PA (z = 2.24, p = 0.025; Fig. 5a). CPHM including all four treatments and wing length as covariates indicated that poor adult nutrition increased the death risk of mosquitoes, and smaller-sized individuals did not show a significant difference in the death risk compared to their larger counterparts (Fig. 5b). There was no significant interaction between larval and adult dietary treatments on survival (estimate ± SE = 3.36 ± 4.59, t= 0.73, p= 0.47).
There was a positive correlation between fecundity and wing length (linear regression using fecundity and wing length as dependent and explanatory variable respectively: estimate ± SE= 110.18 ± 10.04, t=10.98, p<0.001, R2=0.38). The slope of this positive relationship did not differ across treatments (ANCOVA: slope = 69.81, adjusted R2= 0.46; Fig. 6). The intercepts of this positive relationship were significantly different between HL+PA and HL+GA (TukeyHSD, p= 0.006), LL+GA and HL+GA (TukeyHSD, p= 0.004), LL+PA and HL+GA (TukeyHSD , p< 0.001), LL+PA and HL+PA (TukeyHSD, p= 0.02) and LL+PA and LL+GA (TukeyHSD, p= 0.03). In addition, there was a significant effect of the treatment on the fecundity after controlling for the effect of the wing length (F4,195=43.22, p< 0.001; Fig. 6). There was also a significantly positive relationship between mosquito fecundity and survival (estimate ± SE = 0.29 ± 0.13, t=2.23, p=0.027, R2=0.024), but no significant relationship was found between wing length and survival (estimate ± SE = -0.001 ± 0.001, t=-1.38, p=0.17)