Sugar feeding behavior of adult mosquitoes and its application in mosquito management

As important disease vectors, most mosquitoes need to take sugar meals in their adult stage, and they show distinct preferences for different constituents of sugar meals. Meanwhile, specific circadian rhythms are observed in their sugar-feeding behaviors. Under field conditions, mosquitoes show preferences for different flowering plants and seed pods, which in turn have significant effects on their survival, longevity and fecundity. The volatile organic compounds produced by nectar plants play important roles in directing mosquitoes' location of their sugar hosts, and several electrophysiological active volatile compounds have been identified. Application of attractive toxic sugar baits shows a significant effect on controlling different kinds of mosquitoes. Besides, the sugar-feeding behaviors of vectors have been applied in controlling other disease vectors and detection of vector-borne pathogens successfully. Development of mosquito-specific bait traps on the basis of volatile compounds produced by nectar