Phone use to boost war against malaria

Can the use of a smartphone to identify a mosquito that is harmless and a harmful one help in the fight against a disease that kills over 40,000 people a year?

Scientists at Oxford University are using their smartphones to sense, locate and identify mosquitoes from their hiding places.

Despite the huge toll mosquito-borne diseases wreak, identifying the insects and studying their distribution remains time-consuming and highly specialised work.

The difficulties mean many countries have little accurate data on where different mosquitoes are found, while climate change means their ranges are quickly changing.

The tool, dubbed Humbug, records mosquitoes and identifies species by the tone of their buzzing.