Extended Data Fig. 7: Biting, landing, feeding, and egg-laying behaviors in response to naturally sourced taste cues.
From: Mosquito taste responses to human and floral cues guide biting and feeding
a, Total number of eggs laid per cage of 20 mosquitoes in two-choice egg-laying preference assay, in reference to Main Fig. 5e and Extended Data Fig. 7b. Only cages with water from egg-laying site A had a significantly higher number of eggs (**p < 0.01) than control cages. Ordinary one-way ANOVA. b, Two-choice egg-laying assay measuring preference of blood-fed, gravid females to lay eggs in water incubated with food with/without conspecific larvae versus in sterile water control. An egg-laying preference index of zero indicates no preference. Egg-laying preference index greater than zero indicates preference for egg-laying site water (stimulus), n = 8–10 trials, 20 mosquitoes/trial. Water incubated with conspecific larvae and food had a higher preference index than water incubated with food alone (**p < 0.01). Control data is taken from Main Fig. 5e. One-sample t test (two-tailed) was used to compare preference index to 0; Welch’s t test (two-tailed) was used to compare food alone versus food + larvae conditions. c, Heatmap of mean electrophysiological responses to seven egg-laying site water samples and water incubated with food with/without conspecific larvae, n = 5–16. The control firing rate observed with TCC solvent alone is subtracted from the responses in each panel. The data for the egg-laying sites is taken from Fig. 5c. d, Two-choice feeding preference assay comparing feeding on 100 mM sucrose versus water from egg-laying sites. Schematic created with Biorender.com. Female mosquitoes show significantly higher preference to feed on sucrose over egg-laying site waters. One-sample t test (two-tailed) compared to 0. Control data is taken from Main Fig. 3c. e, Total number of fed mosquitoes in Extended Data Fig. 7d. Mann-Whitney test (two-tailed) compared to control. n = 6–22 trials, 20 mosquitoes/trial. f-j, In reference to main Fig. 5f, n = 5–10 independent experiments, using 20 mosquitoes/trial for panels f-j. f, Schematic of biteOscope biting preference assay. g, Total number of landing events per cage for biteOscope assays. Welch ANOVA test compared to control. Asterisks indicate significant differences from control. h, Average landing preference of non-blood-fed female mosquitoes in biteOscope assay. Landing preference greater than zero indicates stronger preference for sweat-treated (stimulus) biting surface over the untreated control surface. One-sample t test compared to 0. Asterisks indicate significant differences from preference index of 0. i, Number of landing and biting events for biteOscope assays. j, % of landing events that resulted in biting and engorgement. Error bars are ±SEM. ns=not significant, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001 in all panels.
