Survivorship and distribution of immature Anopheles gambiae s.l. (Diptera: Culicidae) in Banambani village, Mali

We observed the survivorship and distribution of larvae and pupae of Anopheles gambiae s.l. Giles immature stages in three habitats (rock pools, swamp, and puddles) in Banambani village, Mali, West Africa, during the mid-rainy season of 2000. Horizontal life tables were constructed for immatures in the laboratory. Times spent in the various immature stages were determined and laboratory survival was measured. Vertical life tables were obtained from each habitat. We found large day-to-day variation for age class composition within habitats across days. The swamp samples had small but statistically significant different distributions in some instar stages compared with rock pools and puddles as affected by precipitation history. There were obviously unstable age distributions in the swamp and puddles and to some extent in rock pools. There were more individuals in some later age classes than in earlier ones. The daily survival estimates using an exponential decay model were 0.807 in rock pools, 0.899 in the swamp, 0.818 in puddles, and 0.863 in the overall village. Possible reasons for the departure from stable age distribution were cannibalism, predation and other complex interactions, rainfall effects, sampling bias, and differences in physicochemical properties of the water in the habitats.