Male mosquitoes may be nearly as bloodthirsty as females under certain conditions, new research suggests. That upends the notion that only female mosquitoes bite, drink blood and spread diseases while males sip nectar.
The finding hints that males aren’t entirely harmless and might play a tiny role in disease spread.
Male Culex tarsalis and Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which are normally disinterested in blood, will take blood meals when humidity is low and they can’t get sugar, researchers report October 8 in a preprint submitted to bioRxiv.org.
.email-conversion { border: 1px solid #ffcccb; color: white; margin-top: 50px; background-image: url(“/wp-content/themes/sciencenews/client/src/images/[email protected]”); padding: 20px; clear: both; }→ Continue reading at Science News