Polymerase chain reaction analysis was performed to determine whether mosquito predators in wetland habitats feed on Anopheles gambiae sensu lato (s.l.) larvae. Aquatic mosquito predators were collected from six wetlands near Lake Victoria in Mbita, Western Kenya. This study revealed that the whole positive rate of An. gambiae s.l. from 330 predators was 54.2%. The order of positive rate was th...

BACKGROUND Indoor residual spraying (IRS) is widely used for malaria transmission control in sub-Saharan Africa. Resistance to pyrethroids in the mosquito Anopheles gambiae is a growing problem. There is an urgent need to develop long-lasting alternative insecticides to reduce selection pressure for pyrethroid resistance and to provide control with a single IRS application in countries with lon...

Long term use of insecticides in malaria vector control has been shown to alter the behavior of vectors. Such behavioral shifts have the potential of undermining the effectiveness of insecticide-based control interventions. The effects of insecticide treated nets (ITNs) use on the composition, biting/feeding and sporozoite rates of Anopheles gambiae s.l. mosquitoes in Musilongo village, Vihiga ...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Investigations were conducted to obtain key entomological indices of Anopheles gambiae s.l. at Igbo-Ora, a rural community in south-west Nigeria. METHODS Mosquitoes were caught daily for a week from rooms where tenants had slept the previous night in each of the four months June, July (2001), and August, September (2002). Anopheles gambiae s.l. sibling species were PCR...

Multiple families representing all possible combinations of crosses between the two molecular forms of Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto Giles and their hybrids were set up using forced mating between offspring of wild-collected females. The results showed that the reproductive output of hybrids and their backcrosses was similar to that of the pure forms as measured by egg batch size, hatching ra...

Disruptive selection mediated by predation on aquatic immature stages has been proposed as a major force driving ecological divergence and fostering speciation between the M and S molecular forms of the African malaria mosquito, Anopheles gambiae. In the dry savannahs of West Africa where both molecular forms co-occur, the S form thrives in temporary pools filled with rainwater, whereas the M f...