Mosquitoes Use Vision to Associate Odor Plumes with Thermal Targets.

ABSTRACT: All moving animals, including flies, sharks, and humans, experience a dynamic sensory landscape that is a function of both their trajectory through space and the distribution of stimuli in the environment. This is particularly apparent for mosquitoes, which use a combination of olfactory, visual, and thermal cues to locate hosts. Mosquitoes are thought to detect suitable hosts by the presence of a sparse CO₂ plume, which they track by surging upwind and casting crosswind. Upon approach, local cues such as heat and skin volatiles help them identify a landing site. Recent evidence suggests that thermal attraction is gated by the presence of CO₂, although this conclusion was based experiments in which the actual flight trajectories of the animals were unknown and visual cues were not studied.

SUBMITTER: van Breugel F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4546539 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature