Before this study, researchers speculated that mosquito brains must have a complicated, sophisticated technique for distinguishing humans from other animals. Quite the opposite, it turned out.

"The simplicity surprised us," said McBride. "Despite the complexity of human odor, and the fact that it doesn't really have any kind of human-specific compounds in it, the mosquitoes have evolved a surprisingly simple mechanism for recognizing us."

— Read more in How mosquito brains encode human odor so they can seek us out at ScienceDaily.