A Mosquito's Sound Could Hold The Key In Fighting Malaria More Effectively

Researchers are trying to figure out a way to stop the spread of malaria by understanding the faint mating sound that male mosquitoes make to copulate.

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This was reported first by Joerg T Albert, a professor of sensory biology and biophysics, Alex Alampounti, a research fellow in biophysics and Marcos Georgiades, a PhD candidate in neurobiology and biophysics -- all from University College London revealed in an article published on the Conversation.

To the unaware, the mating ritual of a mosquito involves a male mosquito pursuing a female by detecting her faint flight tone. If the male can¡¯t hear the female, the chase is put off and the mating doesn¡¯t go through.

Researchers observed the behaviour of the malaria-causing Anopheles gambiae species mosquitoes to better understand how males hear the female flight sound. And this hearing is already pretty bad for both of them as the frequencies are too high to be audible.

However, when male and female flight tones fuse in their ear, it creates lower-frequency sounds known as ¡®phantom tones¡¯ in the form of distortion products. This exists only inside the mosquito ear, and can¡¯t even be recorded or played outside.

The only way a male mosquito can hear this is by flying to hear a flying female and their frequencies should be in a specific range to generate the necessary distortion.

AFP

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Researchers tried to replicate these sounds by recording the flight tones of mosquitoes in incubators that included highly sensitive microphones. Researchers looked at 100 males and 100 females in separate incubators, individual mosquitoes as well as mixed with 50 mosquitoes of each sex.

Researchers tried to simulate a natural environment with appropriate lighting, temperature, humidity etc. researchers measured the frequency of the mosquitoes wing beats across several days and at different times of the day.

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They found that only male mosquitoes would alter their flight tones in a daily pattern. In fact, they¡¯d beat their wings 1.5 times faster than females to optimise their ability to detect single females in a swarm. Researchers also found that this phenomenon occurs by default and it doesn¡¯t really require any interaction between the two sexes.

Researchers also saw males beat their wings faster at dusk compared to other times of the day and their flight tone adjustment is partially influenced by their circadian clocks. Since it¡¯s an energy-intensive activity they restrict the behaviour only at the time of swarming.

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Researchers claim that these findings open new avenues into better mosquito control efforts, especially those involving mutant mosquitoes that cause female mosquitoes to lose their fertility.

Researchers are already working on replication of these discoveries in the mosquitoes¡¯ natural habitat. They're already working on it in Tanzania.

They claim that in order to create a successful program to use the flight sound in controlling the mosquito population, researchers need to further assess male and female flight tone distributions along with male hearing ranges before sending out mutant mosquitoes.

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