Lidar reveals activity anomaly of malaria vectors during pan-African eclipse

Brydegaard, Mikkel, Jansson, Samuel, Malmqvist, Elin, Mlacha, Yeromin P., Gebru, Alem, Okumu, Fredros, Killeen, Gerry ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8583-8739 and Kirkeby, Carsten (2020) 'Lidar reveals activity anomaly of malaria vectors during pan-African eclipse'. Science Advances, Vol 6, Issue 20, p. 5487.

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Abstract

Yearly, a quarter billion people are infected and a half a million killed by the mosquito-borne disease malaria. Lack of real-time observational tools for continuously assessing the unperturbed mosquito flight activity in situ limits progress toward improved vector control. We deployed a high-resolution entomological lidar to monitor a half-kilometer static transect adjacent to a Tanzanian village. We evaluated one-third million insect observations during five nights, four days, and one annular solar eclipse. We demonstrate in situ lidar classification of several insect families and their sexes based on their modulation signatures. We were able to compare the fine-scale spatiotemporal activity patterns of malaria vectors during ordinary days and an eclipse to disentangle phototactic activity patterns from the circadian mechanism. We observed an increased insect activity during the eclipse attributable to mosquitoes. These unprecedented findings demonstrate how lidar-based monitoring of distinct mosquito activities could advance our understanding of vector ecology.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	QX Parasitology > Insects. Other Parasites > QX 510 Mosquitoes WA Public Health > Health Problems of Special Population Groups > WA 395 Health in developing countries WC Communicable Diseases > Tropical and Parasitic Diseases > WC 750 Malaria
Faculty: Department:	Biological Sciences > Vector Biology Department
Digital Object Identifer (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aay5487
Depositing User:	Stacy Murtagh
Date Deposited:	20 May 2020 13:22
Last Modified:	20 May 2020 13:22
URI:	https://archive.lstmed.ac.uk/id/eprint/14498

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