Hematophagous arthropods are animals that feed on vertebrate blood for egg production. Mosquitoes must pierce the host skin, locate blood vessels, and extract blood without being noticed. Mosquito stylets lacerate host tissues, triggering the activation of the three branches of hemostasis, or stopping of blood flow: vasoconstriction, platelet aggregation, and coagulation. Mosquitoes inject saliva into the host skin during their intradermal search for blood (also called probing), and salivary proteins counteract hemostasis. Blood feeding dynamics have been traditionally described by observational studies, in which researchers using magnifying glasses watched mosquitoes in the act of blood feeding. These studies provided the foundation for protocols to evaluate mosquito blood feeding in a more quantitative manner. Here, we introduce mosquito blood feeding biology with a focus on the feeding steps, which include penetration, probing, and feeding. Understanding blood feeding dynamics is crucial for evaluating probing time and other relevant parameters derived from blood feeding, such as blood meal size, fecundity, and fertility. Other considerations, including the relationship between probing and pathogen transmission and novel technologies to address blood feeding, are also discussed.
This is a work of the US government.