The evolution of non-biting mosquitoes: morphological analysis by X-ray tomography meets genomics

Mosquitoes are widely recognized as the deadliest animals on the planet, responsible for more human deaths per year than any other creature. This diverse family of insects includes around 3,600 known species, each with unique ecologies, behaviors, and vectorial capacities, as well as preferences for hosts to bite. Interestingly, three genera of mosquitoes have evolved away from blood feeding altogether, exhibiting distinct behaviors and reproductive strategies. By studying these "exotic" mosquito species, we can gain insights into the evolution of blood feeding in mosquitoes and its consequences. To this end, we generated high quality reference genomes of species in which blood feeding was lost or is strikingly different than the traditional human-biting mosquitoes. We propose to scan males and females of these species to set up a new and powerful approach for studying the evolution of behavior using comparative genomics side by side with comparative morphology.