BACKGROUND: Understanding @entity8976 distribution of potentially infectious (parous) mosquitoes at various hours of the night would be useful in establishing the likely impact of bed nets on @entity311 transmission. Bed nets are highly effective at preventing @entity8976 by older @entity311 vectors, which occurs when most @entity1 are in bed. However, this behaviour is likely to vary across ecological settings and among mosquito populations. METHODS: Field experiments were conducted in Minepa village within Kilombero Valley. Two outdoor catching stations located approximately 50  m from each other were established for mosquito collection. On each experimental night, mosquitoes were collected using @entity1 landing catch (HLC) by a single adult male at each station from 18:00 to 07:00  h. To compare the distribution of mosquito @entity8976 and the composition of their age structure, mosquitoes were sorted and recorded according to the hour they were collected. A sub-sample of @entity5787 was dissected to determine their parity status. Insectary-reared An. arabiensis within the semi-field system (SFS) with known age were also released in the SFS (10  m  *  20  m) and recaptured hourly using HLC to determine the effect of parity on @entity8976 distribution. RESULTS: Overall, there was no statistical association between the parity status and the @entity8976 time of An. arabiensis either in the field or in the SFS (P  >=   0.05). The wild and insectary-reared An. arabiensis were observed to exhibit different hourly @entity8976 patterns. CONCLUSION: The study has shown that mosquito @entity8976 time phenotype is not influenced by their parity status. These findings imply that the risk of @entity1 exposure to potentially infectious bites is equally distributed throughout the night, thus supplementary measures to protect @entity1 against bites in evening and morning are desirable.

Bites before and after bedtime can carry a high risk of XXXX malaria infection.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['human', 'people'] @entity311 :: ('MESH:D008288', 'Disease') :: ['malaria'] @entity5787 :: ('7173', 'Species') :: ['Anopheles arabiensis'] @entity8976 :: ('MESH:D001733', 'Disease') :: ['biting']
@entity1 :: (9606,Species) :: ['human']
