Dengue is a viral disease mostly transmitted by the mosquito vector Aedes aegypti with nearly tens of millions of cases reported each year, resulting in 20,000–25,000 deaths worldwide (ECDC, 2021). Dengue imposes a significant burden on communities, healthcare systems, and economies in many tropical countries worldwide including Sri Lanka (WHO, 2012). There has been a noticeable increase in dengue cases in Sri Lanka, with outbreaks spreading to various regions over the last few years. In the absence of an effective vaccine (Hassan et al., 2021), antiviral drugs or reliable diagnostics (Ariyaratne et al., 2022), disease control primarily relies on vector control. New vector control strategies involving sterile or, incompatible insect techniques, and transgenic studies are currently being developed to reduce the burden of the disease (Dilani et al., 2021). All these approaches require scientific experiments in the laboratory to study their biology, behaviours and physiology to expand the understanding of the mosquito vector-pathogen relationship and provide a platform for the direction of control measures (Dias et al., 2018; Dilani et al., 2022; Wijegunawardana et al., 2020). Furthermore, mass-reared mosquitoes are required to implement mosquito-release programs for population control. Therefore, rearing facilities for mosquitoes have been established for routine colony maintenance at the beginning of such investigations.

However, the maintenance of laboratory mosquito colonies is challenging, with the most critical part being the blood-feeding of females. Generally, female mosquitos require blood to provide essential nutrients for egg maturity so blood-feeding is an essential part of routine colony maintenance (Gonzales and Hansen, 2016; Kaczmarek et al., 2021). Customarily the blood meal was provided with direct host blood-feeding (DHF) (Finlayson et al., 2015). However, the common use of human arm feeding causes great discomfort to volunteers and raises ethical concerns on accidental disease transmission. Even though animals have been considered an alternative, same ethical considerations exist. Additionally, costs related to parallel maintenance of animal housing are high (Boyd et al., 1935; Crowell, 1940; Deng et al., 2012; Rozeboom, 1936).

Artificial blood-feeding (AF) systems can resolve these issues. Several artificial blood-feeding methods have been developed, some simple, some complex (Bailey et al., 1978; Deng et al., 2012; Finlayson et al., 2015; Greenberg, 1949; Gunathilaka et al., 2017; Hagen and Grunewald, 1990; Kasap et al., 2003; Luo, 2014; Pipkin and Connor, 1968; Siria et al., 2018; Wirtz and LC, 1980). These systems basically contain three major components: a reservoir to hold the blood, a membrane through which mosquitoes penetrate with their proboscis to access the blood, and finally a method to keep the blood warm. The commercially available Hemotek membrane feeder (Dis-covery Workshops, Accrington, UK), developed by Hemotek Ltd is a commonly used successful apparatus that uses an electric heating element to maintain the blood at 37 °C (Gunathilaka et al., 2017). However, the use of this apparatus for the mass rearing of mosquitoes is highly expensive and beyond the budget of many laboratories. These challenges strongly suggest the need for an artificial blood feeding (AF) device that is simple in design, efficient, and cost effective. Among the earliest membrane feeding devices, Rutledge-type feeders made of heat-resistant glass or stainless steel attached by rubber tubing to a source of warm water, have often been used to feed mosquitoes (Rutledge et al., 1964). In fact, the common membrane used for the feeding systems, such as collagen membrane, Parafilm or a condom is generally not expensive and mosquitoes can easily access the blood, but the mechanisms used to keep the blood warm are expensive. In this regard, it is more important to provide a simple mechanism to maintain blood temperature at the lowest possible cost. One of the most popular devices is glytube feeder: an innovative combination of conical tubes, glycerol and parafilm-M (Costa-da-Silva et al., 2013; de Almeida Costa et al., 2020). This approach uses pre-heated glycerol to keep the blood warm and does not use complex means to maintain temperature. However, we observed that once the temperature drops, it is difficult to reheat the apparatus for another feeding cycle. Therefore, the current study was aimed at developing a simplified artificial membrane-feeding device designated “Hemocup,” from readily available materials, plastic cups, parafilm-M and a styrofoam insulation system to facilitate the Ae. aegypti artificial blood feeding. The performance of the device was compared to that of the Hemotek membrane blood feeder, by evaluating the blood-feeding rate, fecundity and egg hatchability.