Let's Go: Shajaesza Diggs

Hi everyone. I'm Dasa Digs and we're here at Steger Hall at the Vince Lab. I'm going to show use with the mosquito research that I'm working on. Let's go for my research. I start with the prep work here, I need a bucket of ice to help coot down the mosquitoes. I have a plate that I put the mosquitoes onto, and then I carefully dissect the wings and the legs of the mosquito, and then they are adhered to a three D printed block with glue, and then I cure the glue with UV light. I then take the three D printed blocks and I put them into an enclosed container with white paper towels to help maintain the human. In order to feed the mosquitoes, I fill capillary tubes with sucroslution that I have dyed blue. I then bring the three D printed block into the faraday cage where I position the electrodes into the occipital lobe and the thorax of the mosquito. I then place the capillary tube around the proboscis of the mosquito, so that I may record the electrical activity of the pumps while the mosquito is feeding. After the recording is finished, I can then view and analyze the signal from the muscle activity. By conducting these experiments, I hope to gain more insight into how the feeding pumps and muscles contribute to the evolution of blood feeding or the requirements for nectar feeding mosquito to transition es.