title: Associative learning of odor with food- or blood-meal by Culex quinquefasciatus Say (Diptera: Culicidae).
abstract: The ability of many insects to learn has been documented. However, a limited number of studies examining associative learning in medically important arthropods has been published. Investigations into the associative learning capabilities of Culex quinquefasciatus Say were conducted by adapting methods commonly used in experiments involving Hymenoptera. Male and female mosquitoes were able to learn a conditioned stimulus that consisted of an odor not normally encountered in nature (synthetic strawberry or vanilla extracts) in association with an unconditioned stimulus consisting of either a sugar (males and females) or blood (females) meal. Such information could lead to a better understanding of the ability of mosquitoes to locate and select host and food resources in nature.
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, 1229 N. US Hwy. 281, Stephenville, TX 76401, USA. jktomberlin@ag.tamu.edu
authors.forename: Jeffery K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Tomberlin
authors.forename: Glen C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Rains
authors.forename: Sandy A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Allan
authors.forename: Michelle R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Sanford
authors.forename: W Joe
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Lewis
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D001769:Blood; D003465:Culex / Q000502:physiology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D009812:Odorants; D013395:Sucrose
chemical_list: D013395:Sucrose