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

Culicidae Mosquitoes, the Culicidae, are a Family (biology), family of small Diptera, flies consisting of 3,600 species. The word ''mosquito'' (formed by ''Musca (fly), mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish and Portuguese for ''little fly''. Mos ...

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

malaria Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects vertebrates and ''Anopheles'' mosquitoes. Human malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, Fatigue (medical), fatigue, vomitin ...

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

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, but it has also been found 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, also called litoral 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 i ...

riverine A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of its course if it run ...

, and backwater bodies. In its invasive

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

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

Range

''Anopheles darlingi'' was absent from

, Peru until shortly after 1991.

Insecticide resistance

Marinotti et al. (2013) provide the first whole genome sequence. This has greatly accelerated understanding of insecticide resistance in ''A. darlingi''. Among other discoveries, Marinotti finds 20

esterase In biochemistry, an esterase is a class of enzyme that splits esters into an acid and an alcohol in a chemical reaction with water called hydrolysis (and as such, it is a type of hydrolase). A wide range of different esterases exist that differ ...

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

P450 Cytochromes P450 (P450s or CYPs) are a superfamily of enzymes containing heme as a cofactor that mostly, but not exclusively, function as monooxygenases. However, they are not omnipresent; for example, they have not been found in ''Escherichi ...

References

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