Reproductive success in Anopheles arabiensis and the M and S molecular forms of Anopheles gambiae: do natural sporozoite infection and body size matter?

Malaria parasites stages prior to sporozoite formation are known to affect the fecundity of several species of mosquitoes in the laboratory, but little is known about this phenomenon in natural conditions especially with sporozoite-infected anophelines. The reproductive success of wild-caught Anopheles arabiensis and the M and S molecular forms of Anopheles gambiae was investigated by comparing females infected with Plasmodium falciparum sporozoites to females free of sporozoites. Association between sporozoite-infected females' body size and their egg batch size was also measured. There was no significant reduction in egg production due to sporozoite infection among wild females An. arabiensis and the M and S form of An. gambiae. The infected groups and the controls laid similar numbers of eggs. A positive association was found between body size of females infected with P. falciparum and mean egg production. Infected females of the molecular forms of An. gambiae and their sibling species An. arabiensis invest similarly in egg batch size regardless of their body size although the expected egg batch size may differ among them because of differences in their mean body size. A reduction of egg production related to infection status was not observed among females harboring sporozoites. Therefore for the gonotrophic cycles that occur once sporozoites are present, natural infection of all three vectors we studied has no or minimal effect on their densities or their reproductive outputs.