Abstract
CO2 and other chemicals affect mosquito blood meal seeking behavior. Heat, humidity and black color can also serve as orientation cues. However mosquito attraction does not necessarily mean that it will land. The sequence of the cues used for mosquito landing is unclear. We performed a field study with wild mosquitoes in an open space and found that no chemicals (except pyrethrins) could completely prevent mosquitoes from landing. CO2 mimics cyclopentanone and pyridine attracted mosquitoes but did not lead to landing. No mosquito was caught in the absence of heat, although in the presence of CO2. Mosquito females commonly explore visible black objects by eyes, which is independent of infrared radiation. Humidification around the heat source may increase the detection distance but it did not affect mosquito landing. If a black object was located distant from the CO2 and heat, mosquitoes still explored the heat source. Relative to CO2 and heat, odorants, humidity and black color show lesser effects on mosquito landing.
Highlights
Mosquitoes transmit pathogens such as the malaria parasite, Dengue virus and the Zika virus (Yuan et al, 2017)
The Trap (2) in Figure 2A may present a heat cue alone without a visual object. With these traps of different colors, we found that black color caught more mosquitoes than the white color, the temperature of the heat source had a greater influence on mosquito landing
Indole and DEET (Ditzen et al, 2008; Lee et al, 2010; DeGennaro et al, 2013; Stanczyk et al, 2013) are mosquito contactrepellents, which inhibit the approach of female mosquitoes to hosts
Summary
Mosquitoes transmit pathogens such as the malaria parasite, Dengue virus and the Zika virus (Yuan et al, 2017). Female mosquitoes use multiple cues to identify and move toward the hosts These include exhaled CO2 (Lacey and Cardé, 2011; Turner et al, 2011; Tauxe et al, 2013; Lacey et al, 2014; McMeniman et al, 2014; van Breugel et al, 2015), skin odors (Eiras and Jepson, 1994; Hallem and Carlson, 2006; Saito et al, 2009; Syed and Leal, 2009; Carey et al, 2010; Turner et al, 2011; Tauxe et al, 2013; McMeniman et al, 2014; Gonzalez et al, 2015), heat (Burgess, 1959; Davis and Sokolove, 1975; Gingl et al, 2005; van Breugel et al, 2015; Zermoglio et al, 2017), humidity (Burgess, 1959; Eiras and Jepson, 1994; van Breugel et al, 2015) and colors (Bidlingmayer and Hem, 1980; Browne and Bennett, 1981; Muir et al, 1992; Gibson and Torr, 1999; Bentley et al, 2009; van Breugel et al, 2015). The roles of these odor chemicals on mosquito landing were investigated in this study
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