So. Here it is. The ABSOLUTELY nuttiest study we have ever done in my 25+ years as a scientist working on mosquitoes "Revisiting the paradigm of anhematophagy in male mosquitoes" Let's dive into the paper www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Female mosquitoes are reproductively obligate bloodfeeders which feed on vertebrate blood to obtain nutrients required for egg production (driving transmission of vector-borne pathogens in the process...
During the last couple months of her PhD, =my student Renuka was doing some mosquito virus experiments. To get good membrane feeds, we routinely deprive mosquitoes of sugar & water for 24hrs before. Renuka didn't bother separating the males out first because who cares about males?
This is really cool - there goes my textbook knowledge.
@flygirlnhm.bsky.social I think you'll enjoy this if you haven't seen it!
Thanks for the thread! Very interesting even for a layman. Will be interesting to see if this has any impact on future studies.