Abstract
Female mosquitoes exploit olfactory, CO2, visual, and thermal cues to locate vertebrate hosts. Male and female mosquitoes also consume floral nectar that provides essential energy for flight and survival. Heretofore, nectar-foraging mosquitoes were thought to be guided solely by floral odorants. Using common tansies, Tanacetum vulgare L., northern house mosquitoes, Culex pipiens L., and yellow fever mosquitoes, Aedes aegypti (L.), we tested the hypothesis that the entire inflorescence Gestalt of olfactory, CO2 and visual cues is more attractive to mosquitoes than floral odorants alone. In laboratory experiments, we demonstrated that visual and olfactory inflorescence cues in combination attract more mosquitoes than olfactory cues alone. We established that tansies become net producers of CO2 after sunset, and that CO2 enhances the attractiveness of a floral blend comprising 20 synthetic odorants of tansy inflorescences. This blend included nine odorants found in human headspace. The “human-odorant-blend” attracted mosquitoes but was less effective than the entire 20-odorant floral blend. Our data support the hypothesis that the entire inflorescence Gestalt of olfactory, CO2 and visual cues is more attractive to mosquitoes than floral odorants alone. Overlapping cues between plants and vertebrates support the previously postulated concept that haematophagy of mosquitoes may have arisen from phytophagy.
Highlights
Female mosquitoes exploit olfactory, CO2, visual, and thermal cues to locate vertebrate hosts
In two-choice laboratory experiments with a paired-trap design, traps baited with a non-occluded inflorescence captured more female A. aegypti (z = 5.5, P < 0.0001) and C. pipiens (z = 12.8, P < 0.0001) than traps fitted with a non-occluded stem of an inflorescence (Fig. 1; Exps 1, 4), indicating that olfactory and/or visual inflorescence cues attract females of both mosquito species
Traps baited with a non-occluded intact inflorescence captured more female A. aegypti (z = 7.6, P = 0.014) and C. pipiens (z = 4.1, P < 0.0001) than traps fitted with an occluded intact inflorescence (Fig. 1; Exps 3, 6), revealing an additive effect between olfactory and visual inflorescence cues on mosquito attraction
Summary
CO2, visual, and thermal cues to locate vertebrate hosts. Our data support the hypothesis that the entire inflorescence Gestalt of olfactory, CO2 and visual cues is more attractive to mosquitoes than floral odorants alone. Females of many mosquito species require the nutrients obtained from a vertebrate blood meal for egg development Both male and female mosquitoes consume plant sugars, primarily as floral nectar[1,2], that provide essential energy for flight and survival[1,2,3], enabling populations even of highly synanthropic mosquitoes to persist[3]. Mosquitoes use olfactory, visual, and thermal cues to locate vertebrate hosts, including humans. Visual cues mediate other plant-pollinator interactions[34], and guide host-foraging mosquitoes, provided they have been impelled by elevated levels of CO215. How frequently semiochemicals are shared by human host and plant resources remains unknown
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