Table 3 Statistical comparisons of the effects of odour and appearance of an object on mean flight parameters. (A) Female mosquitoes with black tile present, in clean air vs host odour (Fig. 6a, b). (B) Female mosquitoes in host odour with black vs clear tile present (Fig. 6b, c). 3D positional data were aligned to the time at which a track came nearest the tile (0.0 s) and statistical comparisons correspond to the maximal reading for the particular metric tested (at -0.5, 0.1 and 0.5 s for speed and velocities, and at -0.5, 0.04 and 0.5 s for angular velocity, significant results in bold). All values were calculated using the t-test for unequal variance

(A) Black objects in

clean vs host odour

df

t

P

df

t

P

df

t

P

Speed

42.3

-0.56

0.57

37.5

2.29

< 0.05

54.5

-0.52

0.59

Cross-wind velocity

42.5

-0.52

0.60

57.9

1.25

0.21

57.2

3.23

< 0.01

Upwind velocity

43.0

-1.40

0.16

45.1

1.57

0.12

57.9

1.30

0.19

Vertical velocity

42.0

3.49

< 0.01

50.8

4.87

< 0.001

48.7

3.44

< 0.01

Angular velocity

32.1

-0.74

0.46

29.1

3.58

< 0.01

48.4

0.53

0.59

(B) Black vs clear

objects in host odour

df

t

P

df

t

P

df

t

P

Speed

15.0

-0.54

0.59

29.9

2.26

< 0.05

13.2

0.53

0.59

Cross-wind velocity

20.6

1.15

0.26

20.8

-0.38

0.70

17.8

-1.22

0.23

Upwind velocity

17.1

0.21

0.83

29.8

1.19

0.24

22.3

0.78

0.44

Vertical velocity

13.2

1.77

0.09

26.6

2.70

< 0.05

24.1

0.78

0.44

Angular velocity

19.8

0.17

0.85

19.6

0.06

0.94

15.61

-1.16

0.26