Science: Windborne mosquitoes may carry malaria hundreds of kilometers
“Conventional scientific wisdom has long held that mosquitoes have a limited range: They fly low to the ground and typically travel less than 5 kilometers during their brief lifetimes. Now, researchers have turned that wisdom on its head. In the Sahel, the semidesert region just south of the Sahara Desert, malaria-bearing mosquitoes are borne on winds that allow them to travel hundreds of kilometers — and as high as 290 meters above the ground — in a single night. The findings, published [Wednesday] in Nature, help explain why mosquito populations can surge so suddenly — and mysteriously — in the Sahel…” (Wadman, 10/2).