Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 323, Issue 5917, Pages 1077-1079Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.1166541
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Funding
- Foundation for the National Institutes of Health
- Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative and Hatch Project [NTC-139432]
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The familiar buzz of flying mosquitoes is an important mating signal, with the fundamental frequency of the female's flight tone signaling her presence. In the yellow fever and dengue vector Aedes aegypti, both sexes interact acoustically by shifting their flight tones to match, resulting in a courtship duet. Matching is made not at the fundamental frequency of 400 hertz ( female) or 600 hertz ( male) but at a shared harmonic of 1200 hertz, which exceeds the previously known upper limit of hearing in mosquitoes. Physiological recordings from Johnston's organ ( the mosquito's ear) reveal sensitivity up to 2000 hertz, consistent with our observed courtship behavior. These findings revise widely accepted limits of acoustic behavior in mosquitoes.
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