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How often are male mosquitoes attracted to humans?

View ORCID ProfileVéronique Paris, Christopher Hardy, View ORCID ProfileAry A. Hoffmann, View ORCID ProfilePerran A. Ross
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.03.08.531798
Véronique Paris
1School of BioSciences, Bio21 Institute, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia
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  • For correspondence: veronique_paris@hotmail.de perran.ross@unimelb.edu.au
Christopher Hardy
2CSIRO Environment, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia
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Ary A. Hoffmann
1School of BioSciences, Bio21 Institute, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia
3Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Aalborg University, Aalborg 9220, Denmark
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Perran A. Ross
1School of BioSciences, Bio21 Institute, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia
3Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Aalborg University, Aalborg 9220, Denmark
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  • For correspondence: veronique_paris@hotmail.de perran.ross@unimelb.edu.au
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Abstract

Many mosquito species live close to humans where females feed on human blood. While male mosquitoes do not feed on blood, it has long been recognized that males of some species can be attracted to human hosts. To investigate how commonly male mosquitoes are attracted to humans, we review existing literature and performed human-baited field trials. We then undertook further laboratory and tent experiments to examine attraction to humans in males and females of three common Aedes species. We find that male attraction to humans is restricted to a handful of species including Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus. The presence of male host-seeking behaviour in some species may promote mating success and contribute to these species being globally invasive. Male and female Ae. aegypti show similar patterns in preferential attraction between different human subjects. We also demonstrate that mosquito repellents applied to human skin repel male mosquitoes. Our findings provide insights into mosquito evolution and behaviour and have implications for mosquito control programs, particularly those that involve monitoring of the male mosquito population.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted March 10, 2023.
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How often are male mosquitoes attracted to humans?
Véronique Paris, Christopher Hardy, Ary A. Hoffmann, Perran A. Ross
bioRxiv 2023.03.08.531798; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.03.08.531798
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How often are male mosquitoes attracted to humans?
Véronique Paris, Christopher Hardy, Ary A. Hoffmann, Perran A. Ross
bioRxiv 2023.03.08.531798; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.03.08.531798

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