Researchers discovered a new "super mosquito" species in Mali, West Africa that is the result of breeding between two malaria mosquito species.
The mosquito hybrid is considered "super" because it has the ability to resist insecticides and treated bed nets, University of California-Davis reported.
"[The finding] provides convincing evidence indicating that a man-made change in the environment - the introduction of insecticides - has altered the evolutionary relationship between two species, in this case a breakdown in the reproductive isolation that separates them," said UC Davis medical entomologist Gregory Lanzaro, who led the research team. "What we provide in this new paper is an example of one unusual mechanism that has promoted the rapid evolution of insecticide resistance in one of the major malaria mosquito species."
Anopheles gambiae, a major malaria carrier, has been interbreeding with the another malaria carrier called A. coluzzii, leading to the insecticide resistance.
"Growing resistance has been observed for some time," Lanzaro said. "Recently it has reached a level at some localities in Africa where it is resulting in the failure of the nets to provide meaningful control, and it is my opinion that this will increase."
The researchers believe mosquito-treated nets have saves up to tens of thousands of lives in Mali, and malaria deaths have decreased by 46 percent since the year 2000 across the globe.
"[Now there's] an urgent need to develop new and effective malaria vector control strategies," Lanzaro warned.
Researchers are working on a number of new strategies to combat this including utilizing mosquito-killing bacteria and fungi as well as genetic manipulation of mosquitoes that either hinder their ability to spread the disease or eliminate them completely.
The findings were published in a recent edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
