Data and code associated with: Spectral preferences of mosquitos are altered by odors

Description

This dataset is a supplement to the article "Spectral preferences of mosquitos are altered by odors". The article focuses on wind tunnel behavioral bioassay investigations of mosquito spectral preferences, along with supporting photographic and spectrographic measurements. The methods describing the generation of this data are described in the associated article with additional methodological details given in the subfolder "read me.txt" files. The dataset also includes Arduino and python code that was used to generate odor and visual stimuli. See "read me.txt" files for additional details. Article Abstract: "Vision underlies many important behaviors in insects generally and in mosquitos specifically. Mosquito vision plays a role in predator avoidance, mate finding, oviposition, locating vertebrate hosts, and vectoring disease. Recent work has shown that when sensitized with CO2, the visual responses of Aedes aegypti are wavelength dependent but little is known about how other olfactory stimuli can modulate visual responses. The visual cues associated with flowers, vertebrate hosts, or oviposition sites differs substantially and it is possible that odors might prime the mosquito visual system to respond to these different resources. To investigate the interplay of olfactory and visual cues, we adapted previously used wind tunnel bioassays to use quasi-monochromatic targets (390-740 nm) created with a novel LED synth. We coupled these visual targets with CO2 and the odors representative of vertebrate hosts, floral nectar or oviposition sites and assessed responses via 3D tracking of female mosquitos. When CO2 alone is present, we observe a lower preference for wavelengths in the green portion of the visible spectrum with a gradual increase as wavelengths moved towards the violet and red ends of the spectrum. However, when odors associated both with flowers and oviposition sites, we observed significant increases in mosquito preference for green (475-575 nm) stimuli. In contrast when vertebrate host odor was present, we saw increased preference for stimuli across the entire visible spectrum. These odor shifts in the mosquito spectral preferences suggest these preferences are not fixed and shift depending on behavioral context."

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