Visual and olfactory associative learning in the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto

Malaria Journal

Table 3 Example of method validation experiment using contrasted blood qualities

Association	Chequered/Normal blood		White/Normal blood		χ ²	p-value
Blood	Normal blood^†	Salted blood^†	Normal blood^†	Salted blood^†	-	-
Time (min)	n	n	n	n
2	14	16	9	7	0.0	1.000
4	19	7	9	4	7.2	0.006
6	15	4	16	4	9.9	0.002
8	17	0	17	3	30.5	< 0.001
10*	0	16	1	20	42.1	< 0.001

*Here the association between the visual stimulus and blood quality was inverted
†The change in number of females on two blood feeders with contrasting bloodmeal quality (salted and normal blood) associated, in this instance, with chequered and white visual patterns for bi-directional conditioning was recorded. The position of each feeder was alternated every 2 min; but at time 10 min (in bold) the association between visual cue and feeder quality was inverted in order to verify that females effectively followed the cue and did not simply distinguish feeders. Females were thus fooled into probing/feeding on salted blood. Significant results are in bold

ISSN: 1475-2875