ABSTRACT
The Ross-MacDonald model of vectorial capacity, the expected number of infectious bites that will eventually arise from all the mosquitoes that bite a single person on a single day, still forms the basis of most of the more complicated models of transmission. Ross’s original models were refined by a number of others, notably the mathematician Lotka. They were originally designed to predict the impact of larval control on malaria transmission. Ross began his search for evidence of mosquito involvement in malaria transmission in 1894 in India. The ovarioles of a newly emerged insect are very small, and the terminal follicle is without yolk. Species such as A. gambiae s.l. and A. funestus may take a pre-gravid blood meal on their second or third night after emergence. It is important to know if mosquitoes are more likely to die as they get older or if the factors that are likely to kill them do so independent of mosquito age.
