Development and survival of Anopheles pharoensis and An. multicolor from Faiyum, Egypt

Adults of Anopheles pharoensis and An. multicolor were held under cycling environmental conditions in the laboratory to examine the duration of the gonotrophic cycles, survival and life expectancy, and to examine the life table characteristics of F1 larvae. The first gonotrophic cycle took 6.14 and 7.37 days for An. pharoensis and An. multicolor, respectively. Subsequent gonotrophic cycles for the 2 species were shorter. Daily survival rates of An. pharoensis and An. multicolor in the laboratory were 0.95 and 0.93, respectively. The parity rate of field-collected females and estimates of the duration of the gonotrophic cycle yielded daily survivorship estimates of 0.89 and 0.80 for An. pharoensis and An. multicolor, respectively. Mean life expectancy at emergence was 19.0 days for An. pharoensis compared with 17.9 days for An. multicolor. Survivorship from egg eclosion to adult emergence and development time were similar for both species. Both the duration of gonotrophic cycles and mean life expectancies indicated that An. pharoensis had a greater potential to serve as a malaria vector than An. multicolor.