Talk:Mosquito

Mosquito has been listed as one of the Natural sciences good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it. Review: February 11, 2024. (Reviewed version).

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This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (center, color, defense, realize, traveled) and some terms may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

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In the paragraph discussing human body odor and volatile organic compounds, please add a brief clarification regarding the role of skin microbiota as a source of these compounds.

Suggested addition (one sentence):

After: "Body odor that is composed of volatile organic compounds is emitted from the skin of humans. This is the most important cue used by mosquitoes.[43]"

Add: "Many of these volatile odor compounds (VOCs) are produced when skin-associated bacteria metabolize components of sweat and sebum, contributing to individual variation in human odor profiles. Differences in skin microbiota composition and metabolic activity can therefore influence the quantity and type of odorants released, which helps explain why mosquitoes exhibit preferences for certain human hosts over others."

Add citation: ^[1]

This addition clarifies the biochemical origin of previously described odor cues without expanding the scope of the section.January 2026 (UTC)

 Done Thank you for your contributions! AirmanKitten203 (talk) 18:32, 13 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

FFR: article uses British English; citations use the "cite journal" and similar templates. Chiswick Chap (talk) 13:55, 14 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Late extra bit: not added. The first bit already extended the length of the subsection, whether or not it legalistically avoided "expand[ing] the scope" as opposed, I guess, to the coverage. The subsection 'Finding hosts' is one of 25 subsections in the article ... and occupies over 1/4 of the text already. The point about mosquito preferences being related to odor is already well made. If anyone wants to start a new article Host-finding in mosquitoes they are welcome, but adding to the current section would be WP:UNDUE, if indeed the section isn't that already. Chiswick Chap (talk) 19:00, 15 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

The "Modern era" section says that in the competition in Berezniki, "women stand for 20 minutes in their shorts and vests". I think, given that the source is the BBC, that "vest" here is a British term for "bra".

If I'm right, we should change this. This isn't like "gray" vs. "grey"; it's a hardcore regionalism that non-British native speakers of English will not understand. The only thing that keeps me from just changing it, rather than starting this conversation, is that I'm not entirely sure that "vest" means bra. (I notice, for example, that the bra article does not mention the term "vest".)

Help me out here, Brits? TypoBoy (talk) 16:45, 28 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

A Brit here. What we call a vest is what you call an undershirt, a soft cotton undergarment without sleeves. It's not a bra as it has no cups or wires or fastenings or anything like that. (What you call a vest is what we call a waistcoat, worn as part of a 3-piece suit.) Chiswick Chap (talk) 16:52, 28 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

OK, so t-shirts. As we see in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A118kCjn1nc

I'll make that edit. Thank you.TypoBoy (talk) 02:53, 29 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Not T-shaped, the cross-bars at the top of the "T" imply short sleeves, no? This is an undershirt with no sleeves at all, just a small strip of cloth over each shoulder. Chiswick Chap (talk) 03:43, 29 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]