Glossary of abbreviations.

<div><p>Lipid metabolism is an essential component in reproductive physiology. While lipid mobilization has been implicated in the growth of <i>Plasmodium falciparum</i> malaria parasites in their <i>Anopheles</i> vectors, the role of this process in the reproductive biology of these mosquitoes remains elusive. Here, we show that impairing lipolysis in <i>Anopheles gambiae</i>, the major malaria vectors, leads to embryonic lethality. Embryos derived from females in which we silenced the triglyceride lipase Ag<i>TL2</i> or the lipid storage droplet Ag<i>LSD1</i> develop normally during early embryogenesis but fail to hatch due to severely impaired metabolism. Embryonic lethality is efficiently recapitulated by exposing adult females to broad-spectrum lipase inhibitors prior to blood feeding, unveiling lipolysis as a potential target for inducing mosquito sterility. Our findings provide mechanistic insights into the importance of maternal lipid mobilization in embryonic health that may inform studies on human reproduction.</p></div>