Journal
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL ECOLOGY
Volume 34, Issue 3, Pages 308-322Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10886-008-9436-0
Keywords
mosquito; differential attraction; semiochemical; attractant masking effect
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Funding
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [BBS/E/C/00004190, BBS/E/C/00004189] Funding Source: Medline
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It is known that human individuals show different levels of attractiveness to mosquitoes. In this study, we investigated the chemical basis for low attractiveness. We recorded behaviors of Aedes aegypti toward the hands of human volunteers and toward the volatile chemicals produced by their bodies. Some individuals, and their corresponding volatiles, elicited low upwind flight, relative attraction, and probing activity. Analyzing the components by gas chromatography coupled to electrophysiological recordings from the antennae of Aedes aegypti, enabled the location of 33 physiologically relevant compounds. The results indicated that higher levels of specific compounds may be responsible for decreased attractiveness. In behavioral experiments, five of the compounds caused a significant reduction in upwind flight of Aedes aegypti to attractive human hands. Thus, unattractiveness of individuals may result from a repellent, or attractant masking, mechanism.
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