Right before mosquitoes mate, they change the flapping of their wings to create a harmonious duet.
A study out of Cornell discovered that these love bugs “interact acoustically with each other when the two are within earshot — a few centimetres of each other.” The note they create is about an octave and a half above concert A.
Scientists hope this knowledge will allow them to control mosquito populations and the spread of dengue fever. Lauren Cator says:
“By studying these flight tone signals, we may be able to determine what kind of information males and females consider important when choosing a mate.This will allow us to release ‘sexy’ transgenic or sterilized males that will be able to successfully compete with wild populations.”
This might seem harsh –and I like mosquitoes as much as the next person; that is, not at all– but dengue fever has no vaccine, no cure and it affects fifty million people annually. In Asia, South and Central America and Mexico, the number of cases has increased by more than 300 percent from year to year.
And that’s just dengue fever. Mosquitoes also carry malaria, yellow fever and God knows what else. They’re lethal little beasties and need to be controlled.
