Data for "Visual Threat Avoidance While Host Seeking by Aedes Aegypti Mosquitoes"

The mosquito Aedes aegypti infects hundreds of millions of people annually
with disease-causing viruses. When a mosquito approaches a host, the host
often swats defensively. Here, we reveal the mosquito’s escape behavior
during host seeking in response to a threatening visual cue – a newly
appearing shadow. Reactions to a shadow were far more aversive when it
appeared quickly, versus slowly. Remarkably, mosquitoes evaded shadows
under very dim light conditions. We knocked out the gene encoding the TRP
channel, which compromised the ability to avoid threatening shadows, but
only under relatively high light conditions. Conversely, removing two of
the five rhodopsins expressed in the compound eyes, Op1 and Op2,
diminished shadow aversion, but only under low light. Following the
removal of a threatening visual cue, mosquitoes quickly re-initiate host
seeking. Thus, female Aedes balance their need to host seek with visual
threat avoidance by rapidly transitioning between these two behavioral
states.