Feeding Site Selection by Frog-Biting Midges (Diptera: Corethrellidae) on Anuran Hosts Priyanka de Silva & Cesar Jaramillo & Ximena E. Bernal Revised: 30 October 2013 /Accepted: 4 November 2013 / Published online: 15 November 2013 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013 Abstract A critical challenge of obtaining a blood meal resides in selecting a feeding site at the host. We investigate the feeding sites of species of frog-biting midges (Corethrella spp) on túngara frogs, Engystomops pustulosus (Cope), and two species of treefrogs, Dendropsophus ebraccatus (Cope) and Dendropsophus microcephalus (Cope). To investigate the differences in midge feeding sites, we performed field observations, histological sections of the frogs and examined the mouthparts of the midges. Feeding sites are predicted by the vascular properties of the skin in different body areas of the frogs. According to optimal foraging theory, the midges should feed on host body areas that maximize blood intake. Contrary to optimal foraging theory predictions, however, their feeding sites correspond to body areas with high intensity host defensive behavior. Keywords Biting behavior . blood feeding . skin characteristics . mouthparts . optimal foraging Introduction Given that an organism’s fitness strongly depends on its diet, strong selective pressures refined foraging strategies over evolutionary time. Foraging strategies are thus expected J Insect Behav (2014) 27:302–316 DOI 10.1007/s10905-013-9428-y P. de Silva (*) Department of Biological Sciences, Texas Tech University, P.O. Box 43131, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA e-mail: priyanka.desilva@ttu.edu C. Jaramillo Facultad de Medicina, Departamento de Histología y Neuroanatomía Humana, Universidad de Panamá, Panamá, Republic of Panama C. Jaramillo : X. E. Bernal Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 2072, Balboa, Republic of Panama X. E. Bernal Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA