Influence of oviposition water background colours on egg laying in gravid anopheles gambiae s.s. (diptera: culicidae).

The influence of five different water background colours on oviposition by gravid female Anopheles gambiae s.s., was investigated using a 5 × 5 randomized laboratory experiment. Water with same physico-chemical properties namely, temperature, pH, conductivity, and turbidity, in five different coloured oviposition containers, was presented to 30 gravid female Anopheles gambiae s.s. mosquitoes in each of the five mosquito cages. The influence of water background colour on oviposition behaviour by gravid Anopheles gambiae s.s., was determined by differences in mean egg counts in each container. Gravid Anopheles gambiae s.s., deposited more eggs in water in red-coloured containers than in any other containers. The order of preference was, red (43%) > black (23%) > blue (16%) > green (11%) > yellow (7%). Both one-way ANOVA [p = 0.004 (F = 4.02), P < 0.05 at 95%CI] and Tukey post hoc test showed significance at 95%CI. It is concluded that water background colours influence oviposition in gravid Anopheles gambiae s.s. It is recommended that field experiments are conducted throughout the different seasons of Zambia in order to understand how background colour of water under field conditions, affects oviposition site selection by gravid Anopheles gambiae s.s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]