Temporal and species-specific patterns of mosquito phytophagy in urban pollinator gardens

Understanding mosquito phytophagy is critical for developing innovative approaches to monitor and manage mosquito population densities, especially in urban environments. While mosquitoes rely on multimodal sensory cues to locate sugar-rich resources, their plant-host preferences remain poorly studied in Midwestern U.S. urban landscapes. This study investigated plant feeding behavior in three mosquito species, Aedes vexans, Aedes albopictus, and Culex tarsalis, collected from urban pollinator gardens over the summer of 2024. Using DNA barcoding of two chloroplast loci (matK and trnH-psbA), we identified plant species fed on by mosquitoes and evaluated variation in phytophagy across species and sampling periods. In addition, we extracted the floral headspace volatiles of the most frequently fed-on plants to explore potential olfactory cues. Our results show that plant feeding patterns vary both temporally and by mosquito species, suggesting species-specific foraging preferences that shift over the course of the season. These findings highlight the ecological complexity of mosquito-plant interactions and point toward the potential for leveraging phytophagy and floral volatiles in targeted mosquito surveillance and management strategies in urban landscapes.