Visual and thermal stimuli modulate mosquito-host contact with implications for improving malaria vector control tools

Manuela Carnaghi; Federico Mandelli; Lionel Feugère; Jillian Joiner; Stephen Young; Steven R Belmain; Richard J Hopkins; Frances M Hawkes

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.108578

Visual and thermal stimuli modulate mosquito-host contact with implications for improving malaria vector control tools

iScience. 2023 Nov 27;27(1):108578. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.108578. eCollection 2024 Jan 19.

Authors

Manuela Carnaghi^{1

2}, Federico Mandelli³, Lionel Feugère¹, Jillian Joiner¹, Stephen Young¹, Steven R Belmain¹, Richard J Hopkins¹, Frances M Hawkes¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Agriculture, Health, and Environment, Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich at Medway, Chatham, Kent, ME4 4TB, UK.
² School of Science, University of Greenwich at Medway, Chatham, Kent, ME4 4TB, UK.
³ Gillingham, UK.

Abstract

Malaria prevention relies on mosquito control interventions that use insecticides and exploit mosquito behavior. The rise of insecticide resistance and changing transmission dynamics urgently demand vector control innovation. To identify behavioral traits that could be incorporated into such tools, we investigated the flight and landing response of Anopheles coluzzii to human-like host cues. We show that landing rate is directly proportional to the surface area of thermal stimulus, whereas close-range orientation is modulated by both thermal and visual inputs. We modeled anopheline eye optics to theorize the distance at which visual targets can be detected under a range of conditions, and experimentally established mosquito preference for landing on larger targets, although landing density is greater on small targets. Target orientation does not affect landing rate; however, vertical targets can be resolved at greater distance than horizontal targets of the same size. Mosquito traps for vector control could be significantly enhanced by incorporating these features.

Keywords: Biological sciences; Disease; Entomology; Evolutionary biology.