Register now or log in to join your professional community. Only certain species of mosquitoes of the Anopheles genus—and only females of those species—can transmit malaria. Malaria is caused by a one-celled parasite called a Plasmodium. Female Anopheles mosquitoes pick up the parasite from infected people when they bite to obtain blood needed to nurture their eggs. Inside the mosquito the parasites develop and reproduce. When the mosquito bites again, the parasites mix with its saliva and pass into the blood of the person being bitten. Both Male and female anopheles mosquito feeds on various sources of sugar such as nectar. In addition to the sugar source female anopheles mosquitoes require iron and other nutrients for the developments of their eggs. Therefore she bites the mammals to obtain the blood.
Inside the mosquito the parasites develop and reproduce. Differences between mated and virgin females in their susceptibility to parasites could be driven by different intake volumes and thus different parasite not rather than different susceptibility. Proc Biol Sci. Immune response costs mosquito associated with changes in resource acquisition and not resource reallocation. Cause exploration of the differences why An. This likely reduction of stress in the lab does to the wild male enable mosquitoes to respond to infections differently than malaria would under natural conditions.
Good question. I will go right ahead to answer this question as it is straight forward. The male mosquito CANNOT transmit malaria, unlike the females – who must get a blood meal to be able to survive and reproduce. It is like a death wish for a female anopheles mosquito to refuse a blood meal. The blood sucked from mammals especially humans is needed to nourish the growing eggs which she must lay at the right time and right place. The male anopheles mosquito is really a quiet one – feeding off nectar from plants; indeed the male mosquitoes are quite content with this role. So you see… even if the male anopheles want to give out malaria, it simply cannot do – there is no need for it to act in such manner. They just fly around, eat nectar from flowers, and mate with female mosquitoes. The female mosquitoes need blood meals in order to get the nutrients needed to produce eggs, but the males can and do survive on nectar.
But how do mosquitoes — which transmit the parasites that cause the disease — survive? Their work, published in Science Immunology, could lead to new ways of combating malaria transmission — and even help better understand chronic inflammatory diseases. Malaria is caused by single-celled Plasmodium parasites.