Mating Mosquitos: A High Freqency Buzz
Friday, January 9th, 2009A recent study (Cator et al, 2009) published in Science has found that the mosquito Aedes aegypti uses harmonic convergence of their flight tones (wing beat frequency) in their mating ritual.
A. aegypti is an important species of mosquito as it acts as a vector for two human viral diseases: dengue and yellow fever. Whilst a vaccine exists for yellow fever, we lack one for dengue so alternate methods of combating the disease are needed. One way of achieving this is to control the mosquito population by releasing many genetically modified sterilised male insects which prevents the production of viable offspring, something that some of the study’s authors are involved with. This recent discovery of the mosquitoe’s mating strategy allow the audible appeal of the modified males to be assessed before release, increasing the chances of a modified male mating with a female in the wild.
The study also found that the mosquito’s auditory sensory organ, the Johnston’s organ, can detect frequencies of up to 2kHz, higher than was previously thought.
I first read about the study on Wired Science News (Wall, 2009).
References:
Cator, L.J., Arthur, B.J., Harrington, L.C., and Hoy, R.R. (2009) Harmonic Convergence in the Love Songs of the Dengue Vector Mosquito. Science, 8th January [Online]. Available at:
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1166541 (Science Express) [Accessed 9th January 2009].
Wall, M. (2009) Whining and Dining: Love, Mosquito Style. Wired, [internet] 8th January. Available at:
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/01/mosquitowings.html [Accessed 9th January 2009]
