Malaria mosquitoes acquire and allocate cattle urine to enhance life history traits

Nutrient acquisition and allocation integrate foraging and life-history traits in insects. To compensate for the lack of a particular nutrient at different life stages, insects may acquire these through supplementary feeding on e.g., vertebrate secretions, in a process known as puddling. The mosquito Anopheles arabiensis emerges undernourished, and as such, requires nutrients for both metabolism and reproduction. Host-seeking and blood-fed An. arabiensis are attracted to the natural and synthetic odour of cattle urine, which signals a source of nutrients, but not the presence of a host or oviposition site. Females actively imbibe cattle urine, and its main nitrogenous compound, urea, and allocate these resources according to life history trade-offs to flight, survival or reproduction, as a function of physiological state. As a consequence, this behaviour affects vectorial capacity by increasing daily survival and vector density, and thus should be considered in future models. Future vector management strategies are discussed.