Field measurement of the effective dominance of an insecticide resistance in anopheline mosquitos.

Anopheles culicifacies that were susceptible, heterozygous, or homozygous resistant to HCH and dieldrin were differentially marked with fluorescent dusts and released twice weekly into village huts in Pakistan that had been sprayed with four different dosages of HCH to see which of the genotypes died and which survived. The three highest dosages killed all three genotypes in the first four weeks, and heterozygotes and susceptibles for at least 12 weeks. The lowest dosage killed all the susceptibles throughout the period, and all but 0.07% of the heterzygotes. Thus the resistance is effectively recessive at the higher dosages and unlikely to be selected rapidly, as long as the gene frequency is low to start with and the houses are sprayed regularly. Similar releases of partially and completely resistant A. stephensi, and completely resistant A. subpictus, showed greater survival rates on exposure to the high HCH dosages than the same genotypes of A. culicifacies.