a spatial model of mosquito host-seeking behavior一个空间模型,蚊子host-seeking行为.pdfVIP

A Spatial Model of Mosquito Host-Seeking Behavior 1 1 2 1 1 Bree Cummins *, Ricardo Cortez , Ivo M. Foppa , Justin Walbeck , James M. Hyman 1 Mathematics Department, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America, 2 Department of Epidemiology, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America Abstract Mosquito host-seeking behavior and heterogeneity in host distribution are important factors in predicting the transmission dynamics of mosquito-borne infections such as dengue fever, malaria, chikungunya, and West Nile virus. We develop and analyze a new mathematical model to describe the effect of spatial heterogeneity on the contact rate between mosquito vectors and hosts. The model includes odor plumes generated by spatially distributed hosts, wind velocity, and mosquito behavior based on both the prevailing wind and the odor plume. On a spatial scale of meters and a time scale of minutes, we compare the effectiveness of different plume-finding and plume-tracking strategies that mosquitoes could use to locate a host. The results show that two different models of chemotaxis are capable of producing comparable results given appropriate parameter choices and that host finding is optimized by a strategy of flying across the wind until the odor plume is intercepted. We also assess the impact of changing the level of host aggregation on mosquito host-finding success near the end of the host-seeking flight. When clusters of hosts are more tightly associated on smaller patches, the odor plume is narrower and the biting rate per host is decreased. For two host groups of unequal number but equal spatial density, the biting rate per host is lower in the group with more individuals, indicat