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Little is known about the sugar‐feeding behaviour of equatorial Africa’s principal vector of malaria, Anopheles gambiae Giles (Diptera: Culicidae). It is suspected to feed on plant sugar infrequently, but possibly the timing depends on environmental circumstances, and males may differ markedly from females. These points of uncertainty were clarified in the laboratory, by monitoring both diel and longterm sugar‐feeding activity in both sexes. Males fed on sugar in a nocturnal diel rhythm closely approximating non‐specific flight activity. Female diel sugar‐feeding patterns resembled published rhythms and cycles of host seeking. Males sugar fed nightly at an average frequency of about twice per night, sustained over 17 days. This was substantially higher than the sugar‐feeding frequency of females that were allowed both blood and oviposition sites every night: they averaged about one sugar feed in every 4 nights …