BackgroundShanghai has numerous high-rise apartment and office buildings, but the effects of these high-rise spaces on the vertical dispersal, oviposition and blood feeding behavior ofAedes albopictusare unknown.MethodsIn six multi-story building blocks in downtown Shanghai, 174 mosq-ovitraps (MOT) were placed both indoors and outdoors forAe. albopictuscollection at different vertical heights from the 1st to 6th floors and a terrace on the 8th floor. Collections were made for 4 months. The human landing catch (HLC) method forAe. albopictusmonitoring was also conducted on 6 consecutive days on six floors of two of the six buildings to study the feeding behavior ofAe. albopictusat different heights.ResultsBoth MOTs and HLCs collectedAe. albopictusat all monitored heights. The vertical distribution, oviposition pattern and biting behavior varied significantly among the seven heights (1st–6th floors and 8th floor) (mosq-ovitrap index (MOI):X2= 140.616,df= 6,P< 0.001; HLC:F(5, 138)= 15.111,P< 0.001). The MOI at low heights (1st + 2nd floors) was significantly higher than that at medium (3rd + 4th floor,P< 0.001) and high heights (5th + 6th floors,P< 0.001), and there was no significant difference in the MOI for the 3rd–6th floors. The outdoor MOIs were significantly higher than indoor MOIs at all heights (outdoor 23.09% vs. indoor 9.58%,X2= 74.121,df= 1,P< 0.001).Aedes albopictusHLC density on the ground floor was significantly higher than that on all other heights (5.04 vs. 0.13, 0.29, 0.58, 0.79 and 1.50 per half hour,P< 0.05), while no difference was detected among the heights above the ground floor (P> 0.05).ConclusionsAedes albopictusis more common near the ground level, but it can easily disperse to higher floors in the multi-story buildings of urban Shanghai. No significant differences inAe. albopictusdensity were detected within the 3rd–6th floors using MOT or HLC. This suggests thatAe. albopictusmight also disperse to areas above the 6th floor and seek hosts there.Aedes albopictusprefers to oviposit outdoors; however,Ae. albopictuswas also able to inhabit, oviposit and engage in blood-feeding behavior indoors on different floors. The three-dimensional dispersal pattern ofAe. albopictusin urban areas could facilitate arbovirus transmission and increase the difficulty of dengue control.Graphical abstract