How mosquitoes got their taste for human blood and what it means for the future
Thursday, July 23, 2020 - 12:31
in Biology & Nature
Of about 3,500 mosquito species around the world, only a few have taken to specifically targeting people for biting, making them important spreaders of infectious diseases. To predict and help control the spread of those mosquito-borne illnesses, it's important to know where and why, evolutionarily speaking, certain mosquitoes got their taste for biting humans in the first place. Now, researchers reporting in the journal Current Biology on July 23 have identified two major factors: a dry climate and city life. Based on these findings, they predict that increased urbanization in the coming decades will mean even more human-biting mosquitoes in the future.