The trick to stopping mosquito-borne diseases may have been hiding within earshot of male mosquitoes all these years. According to a recent study conducted by the University of California, Santa Barbara, male mosquitoes rely on their hearing to stalk their female. When male mosquitoes become deaf or their path changes, they refrain from mating.
According to the press release, female mosquitoes beat their wings at a frequency of about 500 Hz, and males that detect it fly to them at a frequency of about 800 Hz. The physiology of mosquitoes indicates the importance of hearing. They have more auditory neurons than any other insect. Researchers have eliminated a protein called trpVa that is essential for hearing in mosquitoes. The mutated mosquitoes were then locked inside cages with females.
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Research results:
It was observed that after three days, the male mosquitoes did not mate with the females. On the other hand, wild-type males that were caged separately with female mosquitoes mated and fertilized almost every female.
Female mosquitoes are responsible for spreading mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue, Zika and yellow fever, and if they are not fertilized, the risk of these diseases can be reduced. In an interview with the BBC, Dr. Jörg Albert of the University of Oldenburg in Germany, an expert on mosquito mating, said the study proves how important hearing is to mosquito mating. According to this study, if the male mosquitoes don’t chase after the female, the mosquitoes can die out.
Although mosquitoes are hated for carrying deadly diseases, they are also an important part of the food chain, providing food and nutrition for fish, birds, bats and frogs, some of which are important pollinators.
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“We found that mating was abolished in deaf males, demonstrating that hearing and TRPVa are important for male mating behavior. This work reveals a mode of communication that is strictly necessary for the successful mating of a male in a mosquito vector,” reads a fragment of the study.
Another method of mating mosquitoes, where sterile mosquitoes are released into areas with mosquito-borne diseases, is also being studied.
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