Mosquito

220k neurons · latest model

Aedes aegypti adult brain is about ~218,900 neurons (Raji & Potter, PLOS One) — not 160 million cells. The number people keep saying is the scale of the synaptic swarm we draw here: 16,000 points standing in for recurrent contacts.

The model in the air right now is the 2026 CO₂ echo-chamber circuit (PLOS Biology): CO₂ olfactory neurons synapse back onto each other, then a computational model shows that loop is what makes a faint human plume pop.

2025 Cell atlas: whole-mosquito single-nucleus map. Same species, same hunt logic.