Mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) Dispersal—The Long and Short of it
Abstract
A review is presented of all aspects of adult mosquito dispersal, encompassing transportation of mosquitoes by ships, airplanes and trains, long distance wind-assisted dispersal, and much shorter almost daily flights that mosquitoes make to locate mates, blood sources, nectar, oviposition sites, and resting sites. The many definitions and concepts of animal migration are debated, and instances of so-called mosquito migration, that is long distance wind-assisted flights, and the ecological advantages and disadvantages of such journeys are examined. It is concluded that there is little evidence that mosquitoes make purposeful long distance flights that can be classified zoologically as migration. It is argued that it is better to regard all mosquito flights as dispersal. Host orientation cues are not discussed, but the contentious idea of a memorized home range between feeding and oviposition sites is presented.
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Adult female mosquitoes undergo a sequence of behaviors: nectar feeding and mating, appetitive search for a blood meal host, short flight to rest, search for aquatic habitat for egg laying, and repeated appetitive quest for another blood meal host.
“Following emergence from these environments, adult female mosquitoes undergo flights for nectar feeding and mating and then an appetitive search to find a blood meal host, a short flight laden with blood to find a place to rest, a search to find a suitable aquatic habitat for egg laying, and then a repeated appetitive quest to find another blood meal host.101”
From Recasting the theory of mosquito-borne pathogen transmission dynamics and control (2014) · cites this paper as [101]
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“101 Given that the mobility of mosquitoes is on average somewhat limited, locations where blood feeding occurs must be close to other resources such as aquatic habitat and resting sites.”
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- Authors
- Service, M. W.
- Affiliations
- Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Service, M. W.
- ORCID
- Service, M. W.
- Venue
- Journal of Medical Entomology
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 1997-11-01
- Volume
- 34
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 579-588
- ISSN
- 0022-2585 (ISSN-L)
- 1938-2928
- OpenAlex
- W4241760433
- Cited by
- 256
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 2.75
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Medical Entomology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Mosquito-borne diseases and control
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Malaria Research and Control
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Insect Science › Insect behavior and control techniques
- Keywords
- mosquito dispersal, mosquito migration, long-haul flights, animal migration, oviposition site selection, resting sites, host location, home range
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Demography, Female, Flight, Animal, Homing Behavior, Humans, Male, Culicidae
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