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Background  In the West African Sahel, mosquito reproduction is halted during the 5–7 month-long dry season, due to the absence of surface waters required for larval development. However, recent studies have suggested that both  Anopheles gambiae  sensu stricto ( s.s .) and  Anopheles arabiensis  repopulate this region via migration from distant locations where larval sites are perennial.  Anopheles coluzzii  engages in more regional migration, presumably within the Sahel, following shifting resources correlating with the ever-changing patterns of Sahelian rainfall. Understanding mosquito migration is key to controlling malaria—a disease that continues to claim more than 400,000 lives annually, especially those of African children. Using tethered flight data of wild mosquitoes, the distribution of flight parameters were evaluated as indicators of long-range migrants  versus  appetitive flyers, and the species specific seasonal differences and gonotrophic states compared between two flight activity modalities. Morphometrical differences were evaluated in the wings of mosquitoes exhibiting high flight activity (HFA) vs. low flight activity (LFA).    Methods  A novel tethered-flight assay was used to characterize flight in the three primary malaria vectors-  An. arabiensis, An. coluzzii  and  An. gambiae s.s . The flights of tethered wild mosquitoes were audio-recorded from 21:00 h to 05:00 h in the following morning and three flight aptitude indices were examined: total flight duration, longest flight bout, and the number of flight bouts during the assay.    Results  The distributions of all flight indices were strongly skewed to the right, indicating that the population consisted of a majority of low-flight activity (LFA) mosquitoes and a minority of high-flight activity (HFA) mosquitoes. The median total flight was 586 s and the maximum value was 16,110 s (~ 4.5 h). In accordance with recent results, flight aptitude peaked in the wet season, and was higher in gravid females than in non-blood-fed females. Flight aptitude was also found to be higher in  An. coluzzii  compared to  An. arabiensis , with intermediate values in  An. gambiae s.s ., but displaying no statistical difference. Evaluating differences in wing size and shape between LFA individuals and HFA ones, the wing size of HFA  An. coluzzii  was larger than that of LFAs during the wet season—its length was wider than predicted by allometry alone, indicating a change in wing shape. No statistically significant differences were found in the wing size/shape of  An. gambiae s.s.  or  An. arabiensis .    Conclusions  The partial agreement between the tethered flight results and recent results based on aerial sampling of these species suggest a degree of discrimination between appetitive flyers and long-distance migrants although identifying HFAs as long-distance migrants is not recommended without further investigation.

Quantifying flight aptitude variation in wild Anopheles gambiae in order to identify long-distance migrants