Mosquito flight in turbulent airflow

Mosquitoes are the world's deadliest animals as they spread many deadly human diseases through biting. To reduce or prevent this biting, we need to properly understand the in-flight host search behaviour of mosquitoes. However, most of the studies on the host searching behaviour of mosquitoes have been performed in low-turbulence wind tunnels or in unknown turbulence conditions. These studies have identified the flight dynamics of host-searching mosquitoes well, but how natural airflow turbulence affects this behaviour is not yet known. Therefore, to determine this, we performed host-search flight experiments with malaria mosquitoes in a wind tunnel, at both a low and high turbulence intensity (5% and 20%, respectively). We produced the increased turbulence intensity conditions using a turbulence generator and quantified it using hotwire anemometry. We tracked the flight dynamics of the host-searching malaria mosquitoes using a real-time machine-vision-based tracking system. By comparing the flight kinematics between mosquitoes flying in low and high turbulence conditions, we determined how turbulence affects host-searching dynamics and performance. The outcome of this study can be used to develop new and improved malaria vector control tools and strategies.