New York Times: Why Some Mosquitoes Prefer Humans
“…Out of thousands of [mosquito] species, only a few like to bite humans — and even within the same species, mosquitoes from different places can have different preferences. Why do some find us irresistible, while others remain unimpressed? To answer that question, a team of Princeton researchers, working with a large network of local collaborators, spent three years driving around sub-Saharan Africa collecting the eggs of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which are responsible for Zika, yellow fever, and dengue…” (Chen, 7/23).

NPR: Why One Dangerous Mosquito Developed A Taste For Human Blood
“A mosquito that transmits dangerous viruses like dengue and Zika seems to have developed a taste for human blood because of the way that people store water — which mosquitoes need for laying eggs — in hot, dry climates. That’s according to a new study in Current Biology that tested the biting preferences of Aedes aegypti populations from 27 locations across sub-Saharan Africa, the ancestral home of this mosquito species…” (Greenfieldboyce, 7/23).