In 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that almost half the world's population was at risk of malaria, while some 627,000 people died from the disease.
So, to reduce the burden of disease from malaria and other mosquito-borne illnesses, we need to continue to develop effective tools to control mosquito populations.
We studied the behavior of mosquitoes that cause malaria to understand more about how males listen out for females to secure a mate. Our results have recently been published in the journalBut first, a bit of background. The mechanism of hearing in mosquitoes is unique, yet poorly understood. A male mosquito therefore needs to fly to hear a flying female. And his own flight tone needs to be within a specific frequency range to generate audible distortion products with a given female.We recorded the flight tones of mosquitoes in incubators fitted with highly sensitive microphones.
We were able to measure the frequency of the mosquitoes' wing beats across several days and at different times of the day. These swarms are sporadically visited by a few virgin females. As you can imagine, finding a mating partner is not easy.