Mosquitoes ’sing’ in perfect harmony to find right partner
January 1st, 2010 - 4:26 pm ICT by ANIWashington, Jan 1 (ANI): Mosquitoes, responsible for malarial deaths, ’sing’ in perfect harmony to find the right partner and have sex, according to a new study.
The study found that those tones are produced and varied based on the frequency of their wing beats in flight.
“Everyone must be familiar with the maddening whine a mosquito makes as it hones in for a bite,” said Gabriella Gibson of the University of Greenwich at Medway.
“There’s no doubt many of us have wondered why it makes its presence so obvious-surely, after all of these centuries of blood-feeding, selection should have favoured a more stealthy approach that would leave mosquitoes less vulnerable to the defensive attacks of its unsettled host.
“Our findings suggest that mosquitoes rely on the sounds they make to attract a mate of the right species, a behaviour that is far more vulnerable to selection than avoiding the risk of being squashed by the rare host that is still awake at feeding time,” Gibson added.
The study has been published online on December 31st in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. (ANI)
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Tags: centuries, current biology, deaths, feeding time, gabriella, gibson, mate, medway, mosquito, mosquitoes, no doubt, perfect harmony, presence, risk, university of greenwich, whine
