Lemonde Bouafou

1 INTRODUCTION Before humans extensively populated Africa, thus modifying and transforming the landscape of this continent, Anopheles mosquitoes likely thrived in natural settings and fed on animals. When humans were just a sporadic and minor blood-meal source (60–40 Kya), malaria parasites were likely transferred from great apes to humans in the forests of Africa (Otto et al., 2018).

Abstract Species distributed across heterogeneous environments often evolve locally adapted populations, but understanding how they persist in the presence of homogenizing gene flow remain puzzling. In Gabon, Anopheles coluzzii, a major African malaria mosquito is found along an ecological gradient, including a sylvatic population, away of any human presence.