| Title: | Multimodal floral cues guide mosquitoes to tansy inflorescences |
| Author(s): | Peach DAH; Gries R; Zhai H; Young N; Gries G; |
| Address: | "Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, Canada. dan@danpeach.net. Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, Canada. Eurofins|Alphora Research Inc., Mississauga, Ontario, L5K 1B3, Canada" |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41598-019-39748-4 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 2045-2322 (Electronic) 2045-2322 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Female mosquitoes exploit olfactory, CO(2), 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 aegpyti (L.), we tested the hypothesis that the entire inflorescence Gestalt of olfactory, CO(2) 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 CO(2) after sunset, and that CO(2) 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, CO(2) 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" |
| Keywords: | "Animals Behavior, Animal/physiology *Cues *Culicidae Feeding Behavior/*physiology Female *Inflorescence Male Odorants Olfactory Perception/*physiology Plant Nectar *Tanacetum Visual Perception/*physiology;" |
| Notes: | "MedlinePeach, Daniel A H Gries, Regine Zhai, Huimin Young, Nathan Gries, Gerhard eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2019/03/09 Sci Rep. 2019 Mar 7; 9(1):3908. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-39748-4" |
