Changes in the circadian flight activity of the mosquito Anopheles gambiae in relation to insemination, feeding and oviposition

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The effects of different physiological inputs on the circadian pattern of flight activity were examined in Anopheles gambiae. Males and virgin females had a similar activity pattern in which the initial (light‐off) peak accounted for a large proportion of the total activity. Starvation caused an increase in activity, but the basic pattern remained unchanged. After insemination, the initial peak in females was greatly reduced, while activity later in the dark phase increased. Blood‐feeding was followed by a depression of activity for 2–3 days, but there was an increase in the relative importance of the initial peak until oviposition had taken place. These changes are consistent with the switches in behaviour in the wild, from mating to host‐seeking, and then between host‐seeking and oviposition. Our results suggest that the changes are brought about by factors which have differential effects on the components of the circadian pacemaker.

Nectar-related vs. human-related volatiles: behavioural response and choice by female and male Anopheles gambiae (Diptera: Culicidae) between emergence and first feeding

“…Anopheles gambiae appears to concentrate its blood-feeding activity in the field during the second half of the night (e.g. Lindsay et al, 1989), whereas spontaneous flight activity in the laboratory is concentrated in the early part of the night among virgin females and throughout the night in inseminated females (Jones & Gubbins, 1978). The weak response to human at the age tested here provided insufficient data to demonstrate a strong late-night bias even for blood feeding, though a weak one was detected.…”

Microgeographic variation in rDNA intergenic spacers of Anopheles gambiae in western Kenya

“…The significant differences in the genotypic distributions in western Kenya indicate a subdivided population structure. This may reflect poor dispersal abilities (Jones and Gubbins, 1978) that result in reduced gene flow (see also Bull eta!., 1987),and small population size that permits founder events to play an important role in interpopulation differentiation. No estimates of population size were made in the present study but collections made at the same sites from one year to the next occasionally fail to yield A. gambiae, suggesting substantial reductions in population size or local extinctions.…”

Identity and transfer of male reproductive gland proteins of the dengue vector mosquito, Aedes aegypti: Potential tools for control of female feeding and reproduction

“…aegypti and transferred to females during mating influence reproductive and feeding behavior (reviewd in Clements, 1999a;Klowden, 1999). Studies that have compared phenotypes of mated and unmated females or used direct injection of mosquito male accessory gland homogenate into unmated females have reported post-mating effects on female mosquito behavior including flight (Taylor and Jones, 1969;Jones and Gubbins, 1978;Jones and Gubbins, 1979;Jones, 1981;Chiba et al, 1990;Chiba and Shinkawa, 1992), response to host cues (Lavoipierre, 1958;Judson, 1967;Hartberg, 1971;Klowden and Lea, 1979), oviposition (Gillett, 1955;Leahy and Craig, 1965;Hiss and Fuchs, 1972;Ramalingam and Craig, 1976), fertility and ovarian development (Feyvogel et al, 1968;Klowden and Chambers, 1991;Klowden and Chambers, 1992;Klowden, 1993), blood digestion (Edman, 1970;Downe, 1975), and sexual refractoriness (Fuchs et al, 1968;Fuchs and Hiss, 1970). The stimulus for post-mating effects may not be the same for all mosquitoes (Klowden, 2006).…”