Comments on: Mosquitoes harmonise their buzzing in love duets

By: Ed Yong

Ed Yong — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:03:49 +0000

Yeah absolutely. It's clear that there's a lot of work to do before any approach that involves releasing genetically-engineered males can be done successfully. For example, a study last year showed that we're not even entirely clear about what criteria mosquitoes use to select mates - surely a fundamental consideration for these sorts of strategies?

By: Kilian Hekhuis

Kilian Hekhuis — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:57:40 +0000

“(…) releasing sterile males could be a way of controlling mosquito populations in the wild – it would lead to fruitless matings that would prevent females from engaging in productive ones later.”
Unless the sterile males are less skillful in getting their frequencies right. In fact, it seems that any release of males into a wild population for mosquito control (e.g. genetically modified ones) needs to take this into account.

By: Ed Yong

Ed Yong — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:27:29 +0000

You know, when I read that, I thought, “Yes. That’s right. That’s what I said, isn’t it?”. Now, reading back, that’s absolutely not what I said – what I wrote implied that they shift their fundamental frequency didn’t it? Nuts.
Also managed to get the lead researcher’s name wrong – Cator not Calor.
All round accuracy FAIL, methinks. /slaps self on hand – must do better.
Note that the text has now changed to correct my cock-ups.

By: John Evens

John Evens — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 14:33:13 +0000

I heard on NPR (and I’m not saying they’re an authority) that actually the 1200Hz note was an overtone. That is to say that the insects don’t double (the male) or triple (the female) their wing buzzing frequency, to match each other at 1200 Hz they just subtly alter their tones around the 400 and 600 Hz ranges such that the overtone is manifested.

By: Lilian Nattel

Lilian Nattel — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:36:51 +0000

I’ll try to remember this the next time I’m in mosquito country and swatting.