Blood-feeding arthropods: Thoughts and considerations when setting up your EPG study

Electropenetrography (EPG) allows for the elucidation and quantification of unseen mouthpart movements and feeding behaviors of arthropods inside host tissues. Recently AC-DC EPG has been applied to mosquitoes, ticks, sandflies, and biting midges, allowing for novel insights into the plasticity of probing and ingestion behaviors among blood-feeding arthropods and the role of these behaviors in pathogen transmission. However, the use of animal hosts during EPG comes with unique logistical and compliance concerns that are less often encountered during the use of EPG on plant-feeding arthropods. Here we present a brief overview of matters related to animal welfare, sample sizes, regulatory approval, biosafety, and biocontainment that need to be considered when developing EPG studies involving blood-feeding arthropods and animal hosts. In addition, we highlight outstanding challenges that need to be solved to move the field forward and allow current and emerging issues related to vectors and vector-borne pathogens to be addressed.