Traditional Morphometrics of Adult Mosquitoes

Mosquitoes are major vectors of pathogens that affect human and animal health. Measuring morphological traits of mosquitoes enables researchers to assess the impact of treatments (e.g., insecticide application, transgenesis) or ecological factors (e.g., nutritional stress, habitat changes) on fitness. Fitness in mosquito species has been linked to vectorial capacity, and thus directly impacts risk of vector-borne pathogen transmission. Here, we use an image analysis software to measure key morphological traits of mosquitoes collected during mosquito surveillance as a proxy for fitness.