TY - JOUR TI - BiteOscope, an open platform to study mosquito biting behavior AU - Hol, Felix JH AU - Lambrechts, Louis AU - Prakash, Manu A2 - Levashina, Elena A A2 - Soldati-Favre, Dominique A2 - DeGennaro, Matthew A2 - Ribeiro, Carlos A2 - McCall, Philip VL - 9 PY - 2020 DA - 2020/09/22 SP - e56829 C1 - eLife 2020;9:e56829 DO - 10.7554/eLife.56829 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.56829 AB - Female mosquitoes need a blood meal to reproduce, and in obtaining this essential nutrient they transmit deadly pathogens. Although crucial for the spread of mosquito-borne diseases, blood feeding remains poorly understood due to technological limitations. Indeed, studies often expose human subjects to assess biting behavior. Here, we present the biteOscope, a device that attracts mosquitoes to a host mimic which they bite to obtain an artificial blood meal. The host mimic is transparent, allowing high-resolution imaging of the feeding mosquito. Using machine learning, we extract detailed behavioral statistics describing the locomotion, pose, biting, and feeding dynamics of Aedes aegypti, Aedes albopictus, Anopheles stephensi, and Anopheles coluzzii. In addition to characterizing behavioral patterns, we discover that the common insect repellent DEET repels Anopheles coluzzii upon contact with their legs. The biteOscope provides a new perspective on mosquito blood feeding, enabling the high-throughput quantitative characterization of this lethal behavior. KW - Mosquito KW - ethology KW - blood feeding KW - behavior KW - imaging KW - contact-dependent sensing JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -