''Anopheles darlingi'', the American malaria mosquito, is a species of mosquito in the family

Culicidae Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning "gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish for "litt ...

. ''A. darlingi'' is one of the major species of mosquito known to be responsible for

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

in the Amazonian regions. It has a wide range of geographic distribution that stretches from

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

but it has also been found to populate in areas affected by deforestation and environment changes due to humans.

Breeding

The breeding patterns of ''A. darlingi'' are affected heavily by the precipitation seen in their environment. Due to the fact that mosquitoes rely on the surfaces of stagnant water or areas with regular flooding as breeding grounds for their eggs and larvae, the annual density of the ''A. darlingi'' population is dependent upon the availability of larval habitats. During the wet season, riverine areas are often abundant with mosquitoes and densities are higher in these after the peak of rainfall. Oppositely, in drier inland areas that are usually further from rivers and coexisting with the affects human disturbance, a peak of mosquito density may occasionally occur in the dry season in areas restricted to man-made dams and stagnant puddles.

Habitat

In its native range ''A. darlingi'' larvae are found by Manguin et al 1996 and Rozendaal 1992 to inhabit

littoral The littoral zone or nearshore is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely inundated), to coastal areas ...

riverine A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

, and

backwater Backwater or Backwaters may refer to: Music * ''Backwaters'' (album), a 1982 album by American guitarist Tony Rice * Backwater (band), a jazz fusion band from Mobile, Alabama, or this band's 1976 debut album * "Backwater", a song by Brian Eno fro ...

bodies. In its invasive

Iquitos Iquitos (; ) is the capital city of Peru's Maynas Province and Loreto Region. It is the largest metropolis in the Peruvian Amazon, east of the Andes, as well as the ninth-most populous city of Peru. Iquitos is the largest city in the world th ...

range Lounibos and Conn 2000 also find them in aquacultural ponds.

Range

''A. darlingi'' was absent from

, Peru until shortly after 1991.

Insecticide resistance

Marinotti et al 2013 provides the first

whole genome sequence Whole genome sequencing (WGS), also known as full genome sequencing, complete genome sequencing, or entire genome sequencing, is the process of determining the entirety, or nearly the entirety, of the DNA sequence of an organism's genome at a ...

. This has greatly accelerated understanding of

insecticide resistance Pesticide resistance describes the decreased susceptibility of a pest population to a pesticide that was previously effective at controlling the pest. Pest species evolve pesticide resistance via natural selection: the most resistant specimens su ...

in ''A. darlingi''. Among other discoveries, Marinotti finds 20

esterase An esterase is a hydrolase enzyme that splits esters into an acid and an alcohol in a chemical reaction with water called hydrolysis. A wide range of different esterases exist that differ in their substrate specificity, their protein structure, ...

s, 30 glutathione ''S''-transferases, and 89

P450 Cytochromes P450 (CYPs) are a superfamily of enzymes containing heme as a cofactor that functions as monooxygenases. In mammals, these proteins oxidize steroids, fatty acids, and xenobiotics, and are important for the clearance of various compo ...

References

{{culicidae-stub darlingi Articles created by Qbugbot Insects described in 1926