London, January 01: The pesky buzz of mosquitoes may just bug you, but the much-maligned insects “sing” in perfect harmony only to identify their sex partner, says a new study.
Researchers, led by University of Greenwich at Medway, have got the new insight into the sex lives of the mosquitoes — those tones are produced and varied based on frequency of their wing beats in flight, the ‘Current Biology’ reported.
“Everyone must be familiar with the maddening whine a mosquito makes as it hones in for a bite.
“Our findings suggest 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,” said lead researcher Gabriella Gibson.
The Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes in fact include a considerable amount of genetic diversity, representing a complex of seven species and several chromosomal forms. And that diversity comes with real consequences for humans, say Gibson and Ian Russell of the University of Sussex.
——-PTI