Ecology of reproduction of Anopheles arabiensis in an urban area of Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso (West Africa): Monthly swarming and mating frequency and their relation to environmental factors

Nanwintoum Séverin Bimbilé Somda , Bèwadéyir Serge Poda , Péguédwindé Simon Sawadogo , Olivier Gnankine (1) , Hamidou Maïga (2) , Florence Fournet (3, 4) , Rosemary Susan Lees (5) , Jérémy Bouyer (6, 7) , Jeremie Gilles (8) , Antoine Sanon (9) , Abdoulaye Diabaté (10) , Kounbobr Roch Dabiré (10)

1 UJZK - Université Joseph Ki-Zerbo [Université de Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso]
2 INSSA - Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé Bobo Dioulasso
3 MIVEGEC-DEEVA - Diversity, ecology, evolution & Adaptation of arthropod vectors
4 IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement
5 IPC laboratory - Insect Pest Control Laboratory
6 UMR ASTRE - Animal, Santé, Territoires, Risques et Ecosystèmes
7 Cirad-BIOS - Département Systèmes Biologiques
8 IAEA - International Atomic Energy Agency [Vienna]
9 UFR/SVT, Laboratoire d’Entomologie Fondamentale et Appliquée (LEFA)
10 IRSS - Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé

Swarming is a key part of the natural system of reproduction of anopheline mosquito populations , and a better understanding of swarming and mating systems in a targeted species in its natural habitat would contribute to better design control strategies with a greater chance of success. Our study investigated the monthly occurrence of swarming and the mating frequency (within swarms) of Anopheles arabiensis in Dioulassoba, Burkina Faso and their relationship with local environmental factors. Mosquitoes collected from swarms were described in terms of body size, recent sugar meal intake, and female repletion, insemina-tion, and Plasmodium falciparum infection status. Swarms of An. arabiensis were found in each month of the year. Both start and end times of swarming varied significantly between months, correlating with the time of sunset. Swarming mostly started after or coincided with sunset from late July to early October but occurred before sunset from late October to early July. Swarming duration, the number of mosquitoes and mating pairs per swarm, and time to first mating were significantly different between months in an inverse relationship with the monthly rainfall. The number of mating pairs was strongly and positively correlated with swarm size. Almost all the females caught in copula were inseminated but a very few were blood fed; no P. falciparum infection was observed. Males caught in copula and in solo were similar in body size and in the proportion which had taken a recent sugar meal. Our investigations showed that An. arabiensis reproductive activities are most frequent during the dry season, suggesting either the species' preference for dry climatic conditions or a lack of available breeding sites during the rainy season due to the seasonal flooding in this area.

Domaines: Biodiversité et Ecologie

Nanwintoum Séverin Bimbilé Somda, Bèwadéyir Serge Poda, Péguédwindé Simon Sawadogo, Olivier Gnankine, Hamidou Maïga, et al.. Ecology of reproduction of Anopheles arabiensis in an urban area of Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso (West Africa): Monthly swarming and mating frequency and their relation to environmental factors. PLoS ONE, 2018, 13 (11), pp.e0205966. ⟨10.1371/journal.pone.0205966⟩. ⟨hal-02434744⟩