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.
Ever felt like mosquitoes bite you while ignoring everyone else? Scientists are now making progress in deciphering the complex chemical cocktail that makes particular people more enticing to these disease-spreading bloodsuckers.
Plants & Animals
May 12, 2026
1
1903
As a child, the mere glimpse of a spider used to send me screaming and running for cover. I was convinced that spiders were my enemies. I thought they were out to get me.
Plants & Animals
May 11, 2026
0
40
Parasitic wasps of the genus Trichogramma are among the smallest insects in the world—yet they play an important role in natural ecosystems and agricultural landscapes as natural antagonists of pest species. Research teams ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 16, 2026
0
10
A plant uses a rare scent to guide its pollinator to male flowers first and to female flowers later, finds a study led by Kobe University. The work, appearing in Current Biology, uncovers a precise chemical system that not ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 6, 2026
0
13
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
0
55
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
0
80
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
0
14
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
0
20
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
0
16
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
0
55
