Female mosquito swarming behavior: ecological, behavioral, and evolutionary insights

Female swarming behavior remains a largely understudied phenomenon in entomology, particularly in mosquitoes, where most attention has focused on male-dominated swarms. For example, male-dominated swarming is well documented in Anopheles gambiae s.l. mosquitoes, which can carry malaria-causing Plasmodium parasites to humans, but the role of female-only swarming remains largely unexplored. To address this gap of knowledge, we conducted a systematic literature review of 608 peer-reviewed studies, synthesizing evidence across both social and non-social insect taxa to investigate the functional biology of female swarming, with a particular focus on Anopheles mosquitoes. Of the screened studies, a total of 54 met the defined PRISMA inclusion criteria, comprising field-based, laboratory-based, theoretical, and combined field-lab approaches. Only 7 of the 54 studies directly investigated female swarming in mosquitoes, with the remaining studies focusing on taxa such as dance flies, non-biting midges, ants, bees, and locusts. Our findings highlight how rare female swarming in mosquitoes is compared to other Dipterans, such as dance flies, where female swarming is often associated with resource exchange. In Anopheles , female swarming appears to lack direct resource incentives and instead suggests alternative functions, such as mate choice or mitigating potential predation risks. We hypothesize that genetic parameters, resource availability, and environmental conditions influence the occurrence of female swarming. Many of these factors likely interact to modulate female aggregation as a facultative reproductive strategy. Understanding these dynamics could provide insights into reproductive ecology and assist in the development of behavior-based vector control strategies targeting female swarm participation.