12 May BCN-20240411-MOSQUITO-02

Source caption: FILE – A female Aedes aegypti mosquito while she was in the process of acquiring a blood meal from a human host at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in 2006. The feeding apparatus consisting of a sharp, orange-colored ‘fascicle’, which while not feeding, is covered in a soft, pliant sheath called the ‘labellum’, which retracts as the sharp stylets contained within pierce the host’s skin surface, as the insect obtains its blood meal. The orange color of the fascicle is due to the red color of the blood as it migrates up the thin, sharp translucent tube. Note the distended abdominal exoskeleton, which being translucent, allowed the color of the ingested blood meal to be visible. (James Gathany/CDC via Bay City News)