Fig. 1

Photobehavior of adult female mosquitoes. a, b Y-maze assay. a Assay schematic. b Preference index between illuminated and shaded environment (n = 400, 350, 250 females). c, d Tube assay. c Assay schematic and d preference index between illuminated and shaded environment (n = 250, 250, 150 females). e, f Shading assay. e Assay schematic. f Photobehavior of Ae. aegypti, Ae. albopictus, and Cx. quinquefasciatus upon shading (n = 209, 325, 246 females). g–i Photobehavior assay with blacklight. g Assay schematic. h Photobehavior assay with UV light of 345 nm performed at ZT17-ZT23 (n = 250 females per species). i Photobehavior assay with UV light of 395 nm performed at ZT17-ZT23 (n = 250 females per species). j Photobehavior of adult female mosquitoes across zeitgeber time. Photobehavior of Ae. aegypti, Ae. albopictus, and Cx. quinquefasciatus across zeitgeber time (n = 450 females per species). Mosquitoes were maintained on 12 h light/12 h dark cycles, with dark periods highlighted in black. Kruskal-Wallis test, followed by Dunn’s multiple comparisons test was performed for testing among different groups for Ae. aegypti. One-way ANOVA, followed by Tukey’s multiple comparisons test was performed for testing among different groups for Ae. albopictus and Cx. quinquefasciatus. Data labelled with different lowercase letters are significantly different from each other. Experimental groups denoted by “ab” are not significantly different from either “a” or “b” groups. Data includes over three biological repeats, each with four technical replicates. b, d, h–i Dots represent PI of individual repeats, which includes over three biological repeats, each with two technical replicates. b, d, f, h–j Data are presented as mean ± SEM. Total number of mosquitoes released are indicated. Photobehavior was analyzed using one sample t test or Wilcoxon signed-rank test for tests against chance. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001, ns: not significant