Mosquito ecology and control of malaria

Mosquitoes transmit some of the most important infectious diseases of man including malaria that today kills around 0·6–1·2 million people a year, the majority children in low-income countries. There is increasing realisation that no single intervention is likely to halt malaria and a multipronged approach is needed including vector control. Very effective vector control measures are currently available, most involving insecticides, although there is evidence of growing problems with the spread of resistance. A variety of novel genetic approaches to vector control are under active development. Research on targeting the mosquito has been greatly facilitated by huge investment in molecular resources, including the provision of numerous full-genome sequences. Vector control is applied population biology, and I argue here that further progress will require as much attention to mosquito ecology as has been paid to mosquito molecular biology.