How often are male mosquitoes attracted to humans?

V Paris; C Hardy; AA Hoffmann; PA Ross

Journal article

How often are male mosquitoes attracted to humans?

V Paris, C Hardy, AA Hoffmann, PA Ross

Royal Society Open Science | ROYAL SOC | Published : 2023

DOI: 10.1098/rsos.230921

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 the frequency of male mosquito attraction to humans, we conducted a literature review and human-baited field trials, as well as laboratory experiments involving males and females of three common Aedes species. Our literature review indicated that male attraction to humans is limited to a small number of species, including Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus. In our human-baited field collections, only 4 out of 13 species captured included males. In laboratory experiments, we ..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Veronique Paris Author

Ary Hoffmann Author

Perran Ross Author

Related Projects (1)

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Grants

Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Robert Johanson and Anne Swann Fund (to P.A.R.) as part of the Big Science Pitch at the University of Melbourne. V.P. was financially supported by the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. P.A.R. was supported from Aalborg University to A.A.H. A.A.H. was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council Partnership Project grant no. 1196396 'Stopping Buruli ulcer in Victoria'.