Abstract
Host-seeking mosquitoes rely on a range of sensory cues to find and approach blood hosts, as well as to avoid host detection. By using odour blends and visual cues that attract anthropophilic mosquitoes, odour-baited traps have been developed to monitor and control human pathogen-transmitting vectors. Although long-range attraction of such traps has already been studied thoroughly, close-range response of mosquitoes to these traps has been largely ignored. Here, we studied the flight behaviour of female malaria mosquitoes (Anopheles coluzzii) in the immediate vicinity of a commercially available odour-baited trap, positioned in a hanging and standing orientation. By analysing more than 2500 three-dimensional flight tracks, we elucidated how mosquitoes reacted to the trap, and how this led to capture. The measured flight dynamics revealed two distinct stereotypical behaviours: (i) mosquitoes that approached a trap tended to simultaneously fly downward towards the ground; (ii) mosquitoes that came close to a trap changed their flight direction by rapidly accelerating upward. The combination of these behaviours led to strikingly different flight patterns and capture dynamics, resulting in contrasting short-range attractiveness and capture mechanism of the oppositely oriented traps. These new insights may help in improving odour-baited traps, and consequently their contribution in global vector control strategies.
Highlights
Haematophagous insects need blood meals for reproduction
We found that the tortuous flight behaviour of mosquitoes near odour-baited traps was the result of two distinct and stereotypic behavioural responses of the mosquitoes to the trap: (i) when a mosquito flew towards the trap, it would tend to simultaneously fly downwards towards the floor, possibly in order to host-seek near the ground; (ii) when a mosquito came close to the trap, it responded to the strong air currents induced by the trap or to a lack of short-range host cues, by performing an upward-directed manoeuvre, leading to high vertical accelerations in the flight path
We used a colony of Anopheles coluzzii that originated from Suakoko, Liberia in 1987
Summary
Haematophagous insects need blood meals for reproduction. As a result, they have to interact with vertebrate hosts that have various& 2018 The Authors. Haematophagous insects need blood meals for reproduction. As a result, they have to interact with vertebrate hosts that have various. (b) inward flow outward flow + odour CO2 camera #1. Mosquitoes need to minimize the risk induced by this interaction with their host by feeding quickly, stealthily and effectively [1,2]. The impact of such disruptive cues on the short-range attraction of anthropophagic mosquitoes towards human hosts has been studied very little [3,4]. Mosquito flight dynamics in reaction to humans or objects imitating hosts received little attention [5]
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