Do apes smell like humans? The role of skin bacteria and volatiles of primates in mosquito host selection.

Anthropophilic mosquitoes are effective vectors of human disease because of their biting preferences. To find their host, these mosquitoes are guided by human odours, primarily produced by human skin bacteria. By analysing the skin bacterial and skin volatile profiles of humans, bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas, lemurs and cows, we investigated whether primates that are more closely related to humans have a skin bacterial community and odour profile that is similar to that of humans.

Effects of age, size, and mating history on sex role decision of a simultaneous hermaphrodite.

Contrasting with separate-sexed animals, simultaneous hermaphrodites display unique reproductive strategies as they are male and female at the same time. Simultaneous hermaphrodites that copulate unilaterally, for instance, make a decision to mate as a male or female. Previous studies have demonstrated that sex role preference in hermaphrodites is flexible and is controlled by several, often confounding, factors.