scholarly journals Lure, retain, and catch malaria mosquitoes. How heat and humidity improve odour-baited trap performance

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoine Cribellier ◽  
Jeroen Spitzen ◽  
Henry Fairbairn ◽  
Cedric van de Geer ◽  
Johan L. van Leeuwen ◽  
...  

Abstract Background When seeking a human for a blood meal, mosquitoes use several cues to detect and find their hosts. From this knowledge, counter-flow odour-baited traps have been developed that use a combination of CO2, human-mimicking odour, visual cues and circulating airflow to attract and capture mosquitoes. Initially developed for monitoring, these traps are now also being considered as promising vector control tools. The traps are attractive to host-seeking mosquitoes, but their capture efficiency is low. It has been hypothesized that the lack of short-range host cues, such as heat and increased local humidity, often prevent mosquitoes from getting close enough to get caught; this lack might even trigger avoidance manoeuvres near the capture region. Methods This study investigated how close-range host cues affect the flight behaviour of Anopheles female malaria mosquitoes around odour-baited traps, and how this affects trap capture performance. For this, a novel counter-flow odour-baited trap was developed, the M-Tego. In addition to the usual CO2 and odour-blend, this trap can provide the short-range host cues, heat and humidity. Systematically adding or removing these two cues tested how this affected the trap capture percentages and flight behaviour. First, capture percentages of the M-Tego with and without short-range host cues to the BG-Suna trap were compared, in both laboratory and semi-field testing. Then, machine-vision techniques were used to track the three-dimensional flight movements of mosquitoes around the M-Tego. Results With heat and humidity present, the M-Tego captured significantly more mosquitoes as capture percentages almost doubled. Comparing the flight behaviour around the M-Tego with variable close-range host cues showed that when these cues were present, flying mosquitoes were more attracted to the trap and spent more time there. In addition, the M-Tego was found to have a better capture mechanism than the BG-Suna, most likely because it does not elicit previously observed upward avoiding manoeuvres. Conclusions Results suggest that adding heat and humidity to an odour-baited trap lures more mosquitoes close to the trap and retains them there longer, resulting in higher capture performance. These findings support the development of control tools for fighting mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria.

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (8) ◽  
pp. 180246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoine Cribellier ◽  
Jens A. van Erp ◽  
Alexandra Hiscox ◽  
Martin J. Lankheet ◽  
Johan L. van Leeuwen ◽  
...  

Host-seeking mosquitoes rely on a range of sensory cues to find and approach blood hosts, as well as to avoid host detection. By using odour blends and visual cues that attract anthropophilic mosquitoes, odour-baited traps have been developed to monitor and control human pathogen-transmitting vectors. Although long-range attraction of such traps has already been studied thoroughly, close-range response of mosquitoes to these traps has been largely ignored. Here, we studied the flight behaviour of female malaria mosquitoes ( Anopheles coluzzii ) in the immediate vicinity of a commercially available odour-baited trap, positioned in a hanging and standing orientation. By analysing more than 2500 three-dimensional flight tracks, we elucidated how mosquitoes reacted to the trap, and how this led to capture. The measured flight dynamics revealed two distinct stereotypical behaviours: (i) mosquitoes that approached a trap tended to simultaneously fly downward towards the ground; (ii) mosquitoes that came close to a trap changed their flight direction by rapidly accelerating upward. The combination of these behaviours led to strikingly different flight patterns and capture dynamics, resulting in contrasting short-range attractiveness and capture mechanism of the oppositely oriented traps. These new insights may help in improving odour-baited traps, and consequently their contribution in global vector control strategies.


Author(s):  
Brogan A Amos ◽  
Ary A Hoffmann ◽  
Kyran M Staunton ◽  
Meng-Jia Lau ◽  
Thomas R Burkot ◽  
...  

Abstract Female Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus) mosquitoes integrate multiple sensory cues to locate human hosts for blood meals. Although male Ae. aegypti swarm around and land on humans in nature to mate, direct evidence of attraction to humans is limited. Male mosquito attraction to human host cues is often undetectable in confined laboratory assays, leading to a misconception that male mosquitoes are not attracted to humans. We used semifield experiments to demonstrate robust attraction of male Ae. aegypti to humans. Human-baited traps captured up to 25% of released males within 15 min, whereas control traps without humans as bait failed to capture males. Rapid attraction to humans was further demonstrated through videography. Males swarmed around and landed on human subjects, with no activity recorded in paired unbaited controls. Finally, we confirm the lack of discernible male attraction to humans in small laboratory cages. Our experiments demonstrate that both male and female Ae. aegypti show attraction to humans, but with clear sex-specific behavioral differences at short-range. Male mosquito attraction to humans is likely to be important for mating success in wild populations and its basis should be further explored. Our results highlight the importance of arena size and assay design for mosquito behavioral research. A better understanding of host cues that attract males could help us to improve mosquito surveillance and control.


Birds ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 138-146
Author(s):  
Eduardo J. Rodríguez-Rodríguez ◽  
Juan J. Negro

The family Ciconiidae comprises 19 extant species which are highly social when nesting and foraging. All species share similar morphotypes, with long necks, a bill, and legs, and are mostly coloured in the achromatic spectrum (white, black, black, and white, or shades of grey). Storks may have, however, brightly coloured integumentary areas in, for instance, the bill, legs, or the eyes. These chromatic patches are small in surface compared with the whole body. We have analyzed the conservatism degree of colouration in 10 body areas along an all-species stork phylogeny derived from BirdTRee using Geiger models. We obtained low conservatism in frontal areas (head and neck), contrasting with a high conservatism in the rest of the body. The frontal areas tend to concentrate the chromatic spectrum whereas the rear areas, much larger in surface, are basically achromatic. These results lead us to suggest that the divergent evolution of the colouration of frontal areas is related to species recognition through visual cue assessment in the short-range, when storks form mixed-species flocks in foraging or resting areas.


2008 ◽  
Vol 275 (1651) ◽  
pp. 2539-2545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah M Rowland ◽  
Innes C Cuthill ◽  
Ian F Harvey ◽  
Michael P Speed ◽  
Graeme D Ruxton

Perception of the body's outline and three-dimensional shape arises from visual cues such as shading, contour, perspective and texture. When a uniformly coloured prey animal is illuminated from above by sunlight, a shadow may be cast on the body, generating a brightness contrast between the dorsal and ventral surfaces. For animals such as caterpillars, which live among flat leaves, a difference in reflectance over the body surface may degrade the degree of background matching and provide cues to shape from shading. This may make otherwise cryptic prey more conspicuous to visually hunting predators. Cryptically coloured prey are expected to match their substrate in colour, pattern and texture (though disruptive patterning is an exception), but they may also abolish self-shadowing and therefore either reduce shape cues or maintain their degree of background matching through countershading: a gradation of pigment on the body of an animal so that the surface closest to illumination is darker. In this study, we report the results from a series of field experiments where artificial prey resembling lepidopteran larvae were presented on the upper surfaces of beech tree branches so that they could be viewed by free-living birds. We demonstrate that countershading is superior to uniform coloration in terms of reducing attack by free-living predators. This result persisted even when we fixed prey to the underside of branches, simulating the resting position of many tree-living caterpillars. Our experiments provide the first demonstration, in an ecologically valid visual context, that shadowing on bodies (such as lepidopteran larvae) provides cues that visually hunting predators use to detect potential prey species, and that countershading counterbalances shadowing to enhance cryptic protection.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 20200478
Author(s):  
Job Aben ◽  
Johannes Signer ◽  
Janne Heiskanen ◽  
Petri Pellikka ◽  
Justin M. J. Travis

Animal spatial behaviour is often presumed to reflect responses to visual cues. However, inference of behaviour in relation to the environment is challenged by the lack of objective methods to identify the information that effectively is available to an animal from a given location. In general, animals are assumed to have unconstrained information on the environment within a detection circle of a certain radius (the perceptual range; PR). However, visual cues are only available up to the first physical obstruction within an animal's PR, making information availability a function of an animal's location within the physical environment (the effective visual perceptual range; EVPR). By using LiDAR data and viewshed analysis, we modelled forest birds' EVPRs at each step along a movement path. We found that the EVPR was on average 0.063% that of an unconstrained PR and, by applying a step-selection analysis, that individuals are 1.55 times more likely to move to a tree within their EVPR than to an equivalent tree outside it. This demonstrates that behavioural choices can be substantially impacted by the characteristics of an individual's EVPR and highlights that inferences made from movement data may be improved by accounting for the EVPR.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Haiping Yuan ◽  
Chenghao Chen ◽  
Yixian Wang ◽  
Hanbing Bian ◽  
Yan Liu

In order to realize the high efficiency quality classification and three-dimensional visualization of engineering rock mass and to solve the technical difficulties of the traditional rock mass quality evaluation method such as high labor intensity, long process time consumption, many intervention processes such as scale measurement and manual calculation, and nonintuitive classification results, this paper puts forward a 3D visual rock mass quality evaluation method and system based on close-range photography, which optimizes the traditional rock mass quality evaluation method, makes the rock mass classification three-dimensional and visible, and realizes the estimation of unrevealed rock mass quality evaluation index. The research results show the following: (1) The method of storing joint information by close-range photography and extracting joint information by human-computer interaction improves the working efficiency and the process is safe and controllable compared with the traditional method of collecting fracture parameters. (2) Based on the statistical analysis of 97 groups of roadway survey data, the comprehensive statistical regression formula between BQ value of Chinese national standard and RMR value is given, and there is a good correlation between BQ value and RMR value of rock mass quality index. (3) Based on the power-inverse ratio method, the three-dimensional model of rock mass classification of the mine was established, and the cutting model obtained the current distribution diagram of rock mass quality grade, providing scientific reference for drilling, blasting, support, and other production design optimizations.


Author(s):  
S. Kolokytha ◽  
R. Speller ◽  
S. Robson

This study describes a cost-effective check-in baggage screening system, based on "on-belt tomosynthesis" (ObT) and close-range photogrammetry, that is designed to address the limitations of the most common system used, conventional projection radiography. The latter's limitations can lead to loss of information and an increase in baggage handling time, as baggage is manually searched or screened with more advanced systems. This project proposes a system that overcomes such limitations creating a cost-effective automated pseudo-3D imaging system, by combining x-ray and optical imaging to form digital tomograms. Tomographic reconstruction requires a knowledge of the change in geometry between multiple x-ray views of a common object. This is uniquely achieved using a close range photogrammetric system based on a small network of web-cameras. This paper presents the recent developments of the ObT system and describes recent findings of the photogrammetric system implementation. Based on these positive results, future work on the advancement of the ObT system as a cost-effective pseudo-3D imaging of hold baggage for airport security is proposed.


1989 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Mather

It has been known for over 30 years that motion information alone is sufficient to yield a vivid impression of three-dimensional object structure. For example, a computer simulation of a transparent sphere, the surface of which is randomly speckled with dots, gives no impression of depth when presented as a stationary pattern on a visual display. As soon as the sphere is made to rotate in a series of discrete steps or frames, its 3-D structure becomes apparent. Three experiments are described which use this stimulus, and find that depth perception in these conditions depends crucially on the spatial and temporal properties of the display: 1. Depth is seen reliably only for between-frame rotations of less than 15°, using two-frame and four-frame sequences. 2. Parametric observations using a wide range of frame durations and inter-frame intervals reveal that depth is seen only for inter-frame intervals below 80 msec and is optimal when the stimulus can be sampled at intervals of about 40–60 msec. 3. Monoptic presentation of two frames of the stimulus is sufficient to yield depth, but the impression is destroyed by dichoptic presentation. These data are in close agreement with the observed limits of direction perception in experiments using “short-range” stimuli. It is concluded that depth perception in the motion display used in these experiments depends on the outputs of low-level or “short-range” motion detectors.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document