Abstract
In this experimental study we film the landings of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to characterize landing behaviors and kinetics, limitations, and the passive physiological mechanics they employ to land on a vertical surface. A typical landing involves 1–2 bounces, reducing inbound momentum by more than half before the mosquito firmly attaches to a surface. Mosquitoes initially approach landing surfaces at 0.1–0.6 m/s, decelerating to zero velocity in approximately 5 ms at accelerations as high as 5.5 gravities. Unlike Dipteran relatives, mosquitoes do not visibly prepare for landing with leg adjustments or body pitching. Instead mosquitoes rely on damping by deforming two forelimbs and buckling of the proboscis, which also serves to distribute the impact force, lessening the potential of detection by a mammalian host. The rebound response of a landing mosquito is well-characterized by a passive mass-spring-damper model which permits the calculation of force across impact velocity. The landing force of the average mosquito in our study is approximately 40 upmuN corresponding to an impact velocity of 0.24 m/s. The substrate contact velocity which produces a force perceptible to humans, 0.42 m/s, is above 85% of experimentally observed landing speeds.
Highlights
In this experimental study we film the landings of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to characterize landing behaviors and kinetics, limitations, and the passive physiological mechanics they employ to land on a vertical surface
Landings are unique from other flight maneuvers because they require matching the relative motion of a target, demanding highly-coordinated movements in response to visual, thermal, acoustic, and olfactory s ignals[10,11,12,13,14,15]
Ae. aegypti mosquitoes show greater responsiveness to color than the shape or pattern of o vitraps[26]
Summary
In this experimental study we film the landings of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to characterize landing behaviors and kinetics, limitations, and the passive physiological mechanics they employ to land on a vertical surface. Remaining undetected by the host during landing, feeding, and takeoff maximizes the probability of a successful meal Despite their relevance to society, passive and active mechanisms by which mosquitoes initialize this process are understudied. Honeybees (Apis mellifera) decelerate to a hover 16 mm from a landing surface, demonstrating that touchdown is modulated through relative distance[17,38], and initiate touchdown with legs on vertical walls whilst pitching their abdomen to dissipate residual flight e nergy[39]. Upon approach to a vertical landing surface, legs extend and bodies pitch upward[7], most likely as a means to decelerate–flight velocity and pitch are inversely related in houseflies[41]. Fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) accelerate towards their landing surface and, upon touchdown, use leg forces to undergo nearly instant d eceleration[8]. Typical mosquito flight posture is characterized by fore, mid, and hind-legs raised and splayed, perhaps for the sake of reducing in-flight drag[22]
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