Fig. 1 |. Preference of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes for human odour and possible coding mechanisms.

a–d, Response of female Ae. aegypti mosquitoes to human and animal odours in no-choice (a,b) and choice (c,d) olfactometer trials. Bars (or circles) and lines represent means and 95% confidence intervals from beta-binomial mixed models (n=9–14 trials/treatment evenly spread across 6 humans, 2 rats, 2 guinea pigs, 1 quail, wool from 1 sheep, and hair from 4 dogs). Response to exhaled human breath (a, top), synthetic CO₂ (b, top), or unworn control sleeves (b, second from top) was minimal in the absence of human or animal odour. e, All olfactory sensory neurons that express the same receptor complex (same colour) send axons to a single glomerulus in the antennal lobe. f, Schematics show several ways in which the neural activity evoked by human and animal odours in the antennal lobe may differ, allowing mosquitoes to discriminate between them. Shades of red indicate different levels of neural activity.