Diurnal and nocturnal mosquitoes escape looming threats using distinct flight strategies

Flying insects have evolved the ability to evade looming objects, such as predators and swatting hands. This is particularly relevant for blood-feeding insects, such as mosquitoes that routinely need to evade the defensive actions of their blood hosts. To minimize the chance of being swatted, a mosq...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current biology 2022-03, Vol.32 (6), p.1232-1246.e5
Main Authors: Cribellier, Antoine, Straw, Andrew D., Spitzen, Jeroen, Pieters, Remco P.M., van Leeuwen, Johan L., Muijres, Florian T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aedes - physiology
Aedes aegypti
Animals
Anopheles - physiology
Anopheles coluzzii
Bayesian generalized linear model
Darkness
evasive maneuvers
hidden Markov model
Humans
insect flight
Light
Mosquito Vectors - physiology
protean insurance
real-time three-dimensional videography
unpredictable behavior
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Summary:Flying insects have evolved the ability to evade looming objects, such as predators and swatting hands. This is particularly relevant for blood-feeding insects, such as mosquitoes that routinely need to evade the defensive actions of their blood hosts. To minimize the chance of being swatted, a mosquito can use two distinct strategies—continuously exhibiting an unpredictable flight path or maximizing its escape maneuverability. We studied how baseline flight unpredictability and escape maneuverability affect the escape performance of day-active and night-active mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti and Anopheles coluzzii, respectively). We used a multi-camera high-speed videography system to track how freely flying mosquitoes respond to an event-triggered rapidly approaching mechanical swatter, in four different light conditions ranging from pitch darkness to overcast daylight. Results show that both species exhibit enhanced escape performance in their natural blood-feeding light condition (daylight for Aedes and dark for Anopheles). To achieve this, they show strikingly different behaviors. The enhanced escape performance of Anopheles at night is explained by their increased baseline unpredictable erratic flight behavior, whereas the increased escape performance of Aedes in overcast daylight is due to their enhanced escape maneuvers. This shows that both day and night-active mosquitoes modify their flight behavior in response to light intensity such that their escape performance is maximum in their natural blood-feeding light conditions, when these defensive actions by their blood hosts occur most. Because Aedes and Anopheles mosquitoes are major vectors of several deadly human diseases, this knowledge can be used to optimize vector control methods for these specific species. •Escaping mosquitoes rely both on their baseline unpredictability and maneuverability•Baseline flight unpredictability has a major effect on escape performances•Night-active Anopheles mosquitoes exhibit maximum escape performance in the dark•Day-active Aedes shows enhanced escape performance and maneuverability in daylight Cribellier et al. study how diurnal and nocturnal mosquitoes evade a looming threat by tracking 10,000 evasive maneuvers of Anopheles and Aedes mosquitoes in various light conditions. They find that both species exhibit enhanced escape performance in their respective natural light conditions, which they achieve using distinct flight strategies.
ISSN:0960-9822
1879-0445
DOI:10.1016/j.cub.2022.01.036