An ability to characterize the age of mosquito populations could provide cost-effective and compelling entomological evidence for the potential epidemiological impacts of vector control. The average age of a mosquito population is the most important determinant of vectorial capacity and the likelihood of disease transmission. Yet, despite decades of research, defining the age of a wild-caught mosquito remains a challenging, impractical, and unreliable process. Emerging chemometric and existing transcriptional approaches may overcome many of the limitations of current morphological techniques, but their utility in terms of field-based monitoring programmes remains largely untested. Herein, we review the potential advantages and disadvantages of new and existing age-grading tools in an operational context.

中文翻译：

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蚊子年龄分级和媒介控制程序。

表征蚊子年龄的能力可以为控制病媒带来潜在的流行病学影响，提供具有成本效益且令人信服的昆虫学证据。蚊子的平均年龄是媒介能力和疾病传播可能性的最重要决定因素。然而，尽管进行了数十年的研究，但是确定野外捕获蚊子的年龄仍然是一个充满挑战，不切实际且不可靠的过程。新兴的化学计量学方法和现有的转录方法可以克服当前形态学技术的许多局限性，但是它们在基于现场的监测程序方面的效用仍未得到测试。在此，我们将在操作环境中回顾新的和现有的年龄分级工具的潜在优缺点。