Volatile Cues Influence Host-Choice in Arthropod Pests

Abstract

Simple Summary

Many significant human and animal diseases are spread by blood feeding insects and other arthropod vectors. Arthropod pests and disease vectors rely heavily on chemical cues to identify and locate important resources such as their preferred animal hosts. Although there are abundant studies on the means by which biting insects—especially mosquitoes—are attracted to humans, this focus overlooks the veterinary and medical importance of other host–pest relationships and the chemical signals that underpin them. This review documents the published data on airborne (volatile) chemicals emitted from non-human animals, highlighting the subset of these emissions that play a role in guiding host choice by arthropod pests. The paper exposes some of the complexities associated with existing methods for collecting relevant chemical features from animal subjects, cautions against extrapolating the ecological significance of volatile emissions, and highlights opportunities to explore research gaps. Although the literature is less comprehensive than human studies, understanding the chemical drivers behind host selection creates opportunities to interrupt pest attack and disease transmission, enabling more efficient pest management.

Abstract

Many arthropod pests of humans and other animals select their preferred hosts by recognising volatile odour compounds contained in the hosts’ ‘volatilome’. Although there is prolific literature on chemical emissions from humans, published data on volatiles and vector attraction in other species are more sporadic. Despite several decades since the identification of a small number of critical volatiles underpinning specific host–vector relationships, synthetic chemicals or mixtures still largely fail to reproduce the attractiveness of natural hosts to their disease vectors. This review documents allelochemicals from non-human terrestrial animals and considers where challenges in collection and analysis have left shortfalls in animal volatilome research. A total of 1287 volatile organic compounds were identified from 141 species. Despite comparable diversity of entities in each compound class, no specific chemical is ubiquitous in all species reviewed, and over half are reported as unique to a single species. This review provides a rationale for future enquiries by highlighting research gaps, such as disregard for the contribution of breath volatiles to the whole animal volatilome and evaluating the role of allomones as vector deterrents. New opportunities to improve vector surveillance and disrupt disease transmission may be unveiled by understanding the host-associated stimuli that drive vector-host interactions.