The sensory arsenal mosquitoes use to find us

Abstract

Female mosquitoes that home in on people for blood meals are exquisitely effective at finding us. This is because they are endowed with an uncanny ability to sense virtually every cue people provide. These include exhaled CO₂, the image of the host, and volatile body odors, which can be detected at distances of multiple meters. When they traverse to under 1 m, they sense thermal infrared (IR). Within a few centimeters of a human, they detect convection heat and humidity emanating from skin. Upon landing, mosquitoes taste nonvolatile chemicals and sense conduction heat before electing to engorge on blood or fly away. This review focuses on the cellular and receptor mechanisms underlying the sensory detection mechanisms that mosquitoes use to home in on us.

Keywords: infrared; mosquito; olfaction; taste; thermosensation; vision.