Evidence for a 'memorized' home range in Anopheles farauti females from Papua New Guinea

Evidence is presented that female Anopheles farauti Laveran released in an alien village dispersed more, in their first oviposition cycle after release, than females released in their village of capture. In a subsidiary experiment transporting the mosquitoes did not affect dispersal; wind speed or direction was not sufficient to account for the phenomenon. It is hypothesized that these permanent-pool breeding mosquitoes make appetitive long-range flights to oviposition sites. Mosquitoes blood-fed before midnight had a shorter oviposition cycle than those fed just before dawn. Nulliparous females, and those with well-defined ovariolar dilatations, predominated in the early evening whereas females that had oviposited recently were largely collected in the middle and later parts of the night.