The nocturnal swarming activity of the malaria mosquito: it’s not just the males

The nocturnal swarming activity of the malaria mosquito: it’s not just the males | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article The nocturnal swarming activity of the malaria mosquito: it’s not just the males Sofia Vielma, Roxana Minuz, Alessandro Trusso, Simon Sawadogo, and 5 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7045295/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Background: Swarming is a key reproductive behaviour in Anopheles mosquitoes, yet several aspects of its spatiotemporal dynamics remain poorly understood. In particular, the period after sunset has received little attention due to limitations in field visibility and tracking resolution. Additionally, the role of females in swarm formation, and their positional fidelity to swarm-inducing markers, has been largely overlooked. Current studies mostly focus on male swarming behaviour and often ignore female contributions to swarm structure and maintenance. Addressing these gaps is essential to understand sex-specific behavioural patterns that shape malaria transmission dynamics. Methods: This study elucidates the swarming activity of virgin female and male Anopheles coluzzii under controlled laboratory conditions using infrared light-based three-dimensional tracking during and after sunset. Results: Our recordings reveal that both sexes engage in swarming, but females initiate swarming 14 s prior to males. During the peak swarming activity at sunset, females flew 31% faster than males (mean speeds of 0.67 m/s and 0.51 m/s, respectively), and females showed a broader dispersion in spatial positioning. Finally, females also maintain structured swarming activity for a longer period, up to at least one-hour after sunset. Despite these differences, both sexes formed aggregations directly above the visual swarm-inducing ground marker, suggesting shared spatial orientation mechanisms. Conclusions: These findings provide novel insights into the temporal persistence and structural features of female mosquito swarming, challenging traditional assumptions of male-dominated swarm behaviour and offering implications for future studies on vector ecology and control. Anopheles coluzzii malaria mosquito mating behaviour biomechanics Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files AdditionalfileFig.S1.png AdditionalfileFig.S2.png AdditionalfileFig.S3.png Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7045295","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":520001047,"identity":"ad311e4f-ab2f-4d97-8088-b65bf140b127","order_by":0,"name":"Sofia 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males","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Anopheles coluzzii, malaria mosquito, mating, behaviour, biomechanics","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7045295/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7045295/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBackground: \u003c/strong\u003eSwarming is a key reproductive behaviour in \u003cem\u003eAnopheles\u003c/em\u003emosquitoes, yet several aspects of its spatiotemporal dynamics remain poorly understood. In particular, the period after sunset has received little attention due to limitations in field visibility and tracking resolution. Additionally, the role of females in swarm formation, and their positional fidelity to swarm-inducing markers, has been largely overlooked. Current studies mostly focus on male swarming behaviour and often ignore female contributions to swarm structure and maintenance. Addressing these gaps is essential to understand sex-specific behavioural patterns that shape malaria transmission dynamics.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMethods:\u003c/strong\u003e This study elucidates the swarming activity of virgin female and male \u003cem\u003eAnopheles coluzzii\u003c/em\u003e under controlled laboratory conditions using infrared light-based three-dimensional tracking during and after sunset.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eResults: \u003c/strong\u003eOur recordings reveal that both sexes engage in swarming, but females initiate swarming 14 s prior to males. During the peak swarming activity at sunset, females flew 31% faster than males (mean speeds of 0.67 m/s and 0.51 m/s, respectively), and females showed a broader dispersion in spatial positioning. Finally, females also maintain structured swarming activity for a longer period, up to at least one-hour after sunset. Despite these differences, both sexes formed aggregations directly above the visual swarm-inducing ground marker, suggesting shared spatial orientation mechanisms.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eConclusions: \u003c/strong\u003eThese findings provide novel insights into the temporal persistence and structural features of female mosquito swarming, challenging traditional assumptions of male-dominated swarm behaviour and offering implications for future studies on vector ecology and control.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"The nocturnal swarming activity of the malaria mosquito: it’s not just the males","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-10-01 06:49:40","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7045295/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"d7c666a8-aca3-44f7-9563-f50593577a37","owner":[],"postedDate":"October 1st, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-10-01T06:49:40+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-10-01 06:49:40","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7045295","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7045295","identity":"rs-7045295","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}