SELECTION OF BITING SITES ON MAN BY 2 MALARIA MOSQUITO SPECIES

While searching for blood, female mosquitoes pass through a behavioura l process involving responses to visual, physical and chemical propert ies of the host. Temperature and humidity are thought to dominate mosq uito orientation near the host. We observed that biting of two malaria mosquito species, i.e. Anopheles atroparvus (van Thiel) and Anopheles gambiae s.s. (Giles) preferentially occurs on different body regions of a naked motionless human host. Their preference for the head and fo ot regions respectively correlated with particular combinations of ski n temperature and eccrine sweat gland density. Subsequent modification of the host's odour profile by removing exhaled breath and washing fe et results in significant changes of these preferences.