Field video recording paired with trapping reveals mosquito diel sugar-feeding patterns

Sugar feeding is essential for mosquito survival and reproduction, yet its temporal dynamics and species-specific patterns remain poorly characterized under field conditions. We deployed a low-cost, continuous infrared video surveillance system at artificial sugar bait stations at two coastal Florida habitats (hammock forest and mangrove swamp) over a 10-night period, recording 113 mosquito visitation events while concurrently sampling the local mosquito assemblage using CO2-baited and sucrose-baited traps. All visitation events occurred during the scotophase, following a pronounced bimodal pattern with a primary peak at 21:00 and a secondary pre-dawn peak at 06:00. Individual feeding event duration was consistent across the night (22.6 ± 16.4 s), suggesting physiological rather than circadian control of feeding bout length. A total of 12,490 mosquitoes representing 22 species were collected (12,118 from CO2 traps and 372 from sucrose traps), with Aedes taeniorhynchus, Culex nigripalpus, and Deinocerites cancer as the dominant taxa. Sucrose traps were highly selective, capturing a significantly lower proportion of host-seeking (unfed) individuals than CO2 traps. The local abundance of Ae. taeniorhynchus had a strong positive association with station visitation (r = 0.9), whereas De. cancer showed a negative association (r= -0.63). Weak associations for other taxa indicate that sugar-seeking is not strictly density-dependent and varies across the mosquito assemblage. These observations support the notion that species-specific foraging patterns and habitat context drive sugar-bait utilization. Our findings emphasize that localized population dynamics must inform the strategic deployment of attractive toxic sugar baits (ATSBs) in vector control programs.