Mosquitoes are Attracted to Specific Colors, New Study Shows biology science
Mosquitoes track odors, locate hosts, and find mates visually. The color of a food resource, such as a flower or warm-blooded host, can be dominated by long wavelengths of the visible light spectrum and is likely important for object recognition and localization. However, little is known about the hues that attract mosquitoes or how odor affects mosquito visual search behaviors.
The researchers tracked individual mosquitoes in miniature test chambers, into which they sprayed specific odors and presented different types of visual patterns — such as a colored dot or a tasty human hand. Humans can’t smell carbon dioxide, which is the gas we and other animals exhale with each breath. Mosquitoes can.
“Here, we started to learn what visual elements that mosquitoes are looking for after smelling their own version of a bakery.” When the study authors repeated the chamber experiments with human skintone pigmentation cards — or a researcher’s bare hand — mosquitoes again flew toward the visual stimulus only after carbon dioxide was sprayed into the chamber.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
There Are About 73,000 Tree Species on Earth, New Study Shows | Sci-News.comNew research indicates that there are 73,274 tree species globally, among which about 9,200 tree species are yet to be discovered.
Read more »
Certain colors attract mosquitoes, study showsResearchers from the University of Washington believe yellow fever mosquitoes are attracted to certain colors—including red, orange, black and cyan.
Read more »
Two New Flower Species Found Preserved in Burmese Amber | Sci-News.comPaleontologists have identified two new types of fossil flowers in Cretaceous amber from the Hkamti and Tanaing mines, northern Myanmar, dated to at least 99 million years ago.
Read more »
Two New Bird Species Discovered on Borneo | Sci-News.comOrnithologists have described two new species of the flycatcher genus Cyornis and the white-eye genus Zosterops from southeastern Borneo, Indonesia.
Read more »
New MeerKAT Image Reveals Radio-Emitting Filaments in Milky Way’s Center | Sci-News.comThe new image from the MeerKAT telescope at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) in Cape Town, South Africa, shows nearly 1,000 magnetized threads in the Galactic center.
Read more »
This Is the Most Attractive Hair Color, Study Says — Best LifeWhether it's dyed or natural, one study has found that there is a specific hair color that both men and women agree is the most attractive.
Read more »