This photograph depicted a female Aedes aegypti mosquito while she was in the process of acquiring a blood meal from her human host, who in this instance, was actually the biomedical photographer, James Gathany, here at the Centers for Disease Control. The feeding apparatus consisted of a sharp, orange-colored 揻ascicle? that was covered in a soft, pliant sheath called the labellum? while not feeding. The labellum was shown here retracted as the sharp stylets contained within pierced the host's skin surface, thereby, allowing the insect to obtain its blood meal. The orange color of the fascicle was due to the red color of the blood as it migrated up the thin, sharp translucent tube. Though out of focus in the background, note the droplet of newly ingested blood that was being expelled at the distal abdominal tip merely due to over-engorgement on the host抯 blood.