Recent results of high-altitude windborne mosquito migration raised questions about the viability of these mosquitoes despite ample evidence that many insect species, including other dipterans have been known to migrate regularly over tens or hundreds of kilometers on high-altitude winds and retain their viability. To address these concerns, we subjected wild An. gambiae s.l. mosquitoes to a high-altitude survival assay, followed by oviposition (egg laying) and blood feeding assays. Despite carrying out the survival assay under exceptionally harsh conditions that probably provide the lowest survival potential following high altitude flight, a high proportion of the mosquitoes survived for six and even eleven hours assay durations at 120-250m altitudes. Minimal differences in egg laying success were noted between mosquitoes exposed to high altitude survival assay and those kept near the ground. Similarly, minimal differences were found in the female’s ability to take an additional blood meal after oviposition between these groups. We conclude that similar to other high-altitude migrating insects, mosquitoes are able to withstand extended high-altitude flight and subsequently reproduce and transmit pathogens by blood feeding on new hosts.

中文翻译：

---

高空风传播对非洲疟疾冈比亚按蚊存活，产卵和取血的影响

尽管有充分的证据表明已知许多昆虫物种（包括其他other虫）会在高空风中定期迁移数十或数百公里并保持其生存能力，但高空风生蚊子迁移的最新结果引发了对这些蚊子生存能力的质疑。为了解决这些问题，我们对野生An进行了处理。冈比亚sl蚊子先进行高海拔生存分析，然后进行产卵（卵生）和采血分析。尽管在异常恶劣的条件下进行了生存分析，在高空飞行后可能提供了最低的生存潜力，但仍有很大一部分蚊子在120-250m的海拔下可以生存6甚至11小时。暴露于高海拔生存试验的蚊子与靠近地面的蚊子在产卵成功率上的差异最小。类似地，在这些组之间，女性在产卵后摄取额外血粉的能力差异很小。我们得出的结论是，与其他高海拔迁移昆虫类似，