Spatial and temporal characteristics of laboratory-induced swarms: Shape, structure, and flight kinematics.

Malaria mosquitoes mate in swarms, but how these swarms are formed and maintained remains poorly understood. We characterized three-dimensional spatiotemporal flight kinematics of males swarming at sunset above a ground marker. The location, shape, and volume of swarms were highly stereotypic, consistent over the complete swarming duration.

In the arm-in-cage test, topical repellents activate mosquitoes to disengage upon contact instead of repelling them at distance.

Topical repellents provide protection against mosquito bites and their efficacy is often assessed using the arm-in-cage test. The arm-in-cage test estimates the repellent's protection time by exposing a repellent-treated forearm to host-seeking mosquitoes inside a cage at regular intervals until the first confirmed mosquito bite. However, the test does not reveal the repellents' behavioural mode of action.

3D video tracking analysis reveals that mosquitoes pass more likely through holes in permethrin-treated than in untreated nets.

In addition to killing, mosquito nets treated with permethrin have been claimed to repel mosquitoes, reducing their success in passing through a holed net. We have tested this hypothesis by tracking mosquitoes in a modified World Health Organization tunnel test. In the original assay, mosquitoes are released at one end of the tunnel and have to pass through a holed piece of net to reach the bait at the other end.