Host-seeking behavior is a biologically programmed process in which a parasitic or hematophagous organism locates and orients toward a suitable host using multimodal sensory cues. It typically integrates olfactory, visual, thermal, hygrosensory, and sometimes mechanosensory inputs, processed by specialized peripheral receptors and central neural circuits to drive directed locomotion or flight. In arthropod vectors such as mosquitoes or ticks, host-seeking behavior is modulated by internal physiological state (e.g., gonotrophic cycle, starvation), circadian rhythms, and environmental conditions, and is critical for successful blood feeding, host-parasite interaction dynamics, and transmission of pathogens within ecological and epidemiological systems.
It's fairly common for members of the public to ask bug experts if ticks that hitchhike into a house on people or dogs can actually survive indoors for any length of time. A new study provides the first scientific evidence ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 27, 2026
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Undergraduate Chris Zuo sent me the note "Four minutes is too long" along with photos of countless mosquito bites on his bare skin. This full-body massacre wasn't the result of a camping trip gone awry. He'd spent that limited ...
Ecology
Mar 21, 2026
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Researchers have known for decades that female mosquitoes—the ones responsible for the itchy and irritating bites that can also transmit disease—lose their desire to bite humans for several days after feeding, as they digest ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 20, 2026
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A mosquito finds its target with the help of certain cues in its environment, such as a person's silhouette and the carbon dioxide they exhale. Now researchers at MIT and Georgia Tech have found that these visual and chemical ...
Ecology
Mar 18, 2026
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Finding bats in the attic or under roof tiles is no homeowner's idea of fun. But Florida's endangered bonneted bats have few natural options left. With a dwindling number of large, old trees with cavities—their preferred ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 11, 2026
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The preference of some mosquitoes in the Anopheles leucosphyrus (Leucosphyrus) group—including those that transmit malaria—for feeding on humans may have evolved in response to the arrival of early hominins in Southeast Asia ...
Evolution
Feb 26, 2026
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Humans differ from other primates due to their relatively large, permanent breasts, and their development has so far not been conclusively explained. According to a study conducted at the University of Oulu, Finland, the ...
Evolution
Feb 25, 2026
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From summer evenings to global disease prevention, mosquito repellents are a daily defense for billions of people, yet until now, scientists didn't fully understand how mosquitoes themselves perceive these "keep away" signals. ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 24, 2026
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40
Twisting upwardly on trees and other plants—along with houses and even lampposts—vines are a wonder of nature. However, their marvels mask their parasitic behavior: in attaching to other life forms, vines block sunlight necessary ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 2, 2026
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Male nursery web spiders (Pisaura mirabilis) use the sense of smell in their legs to find mates. Researchers at the University of Greifswald used an electron microscope to discover "olfactory hairs" on the legs of adult males. ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 3, 2025
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