RESEARCH Demographic history and e

Full list of author information is available at the end of the articleBackground Malaria affects millions of people globally every year. In 2010, 216 million malaria cases were registered, 81 % of them in Africa [1]. Approximately half of the world’s population lives in areas with some risk of malaria trans-mission, and in America this number is 137 million people [1,2]. Differences in transmission intensity, the presence of several competent mosquito vector species, multiple parasite species, human migration and anthropo-genic environmental changes, are some of the factors that contribute to wide variation in malaria [2]. In addition, the presence of a suitable vector with characteristics such as endophily, anthropophily, endophagy, longevity, high titer of sporozoites and high effective local vector population size are essential for transmission to occur [3]. In the Americas, different malaria vectors are associated with distinctive eco-regions [4]. Specifically Anophele