Acoustic attraction of male mosquitos in a cage

IKESHOJI Toshiaki

doi:10.7601/mez.32.7

The fundamental frequencies of wingbeat sounds of mosquitos were inherently heterogenous and widely ranged when determined by a real-time analyzer. Acoustic extraction of the males of 4 species, Aedes aegypti, Aedes albopictus, Anopheles stephensi and Culex pipiens molestus, was done from the conspecific populations in cages by generating the average mono-frequency sounds of male or female mosquitos with an audio oscillator. Small percentages of the males were left unextracted after 4 or 5 days of sounding, meanwhile 15.3% to 100% of the females were inseminated depending on the frequency and the species. The males of aedine mosquitos responded best to the conspecific male frequencies, whereas all the females of Cx. p. molestus were inseminated before the most of males were extracted from the cage. The females of Ae. albopictus and An. stephensi also responded significantly to the conspecific male frequencies. This fact may have some reference to the females' flight into the male swarm in nature. When several cohorts of Ae. aegypti or An. stephensi were introduced into a cage at intervals and the males were extracted continuously with their female frequency, the insemination rates of the females remaining in the cage varied from 10% to 20%. The flight activity of the males of Ae. aegypti and Cx. p. molestus was bimodal to peak at dawn and dusk, whereas that of An. stephensi was geared at 18 : 00 to only 15-min gate, during which their flagella of antennae were erected. No olfactory pheromone seemed to be involved in the attraction of females of these mosquitos.

Acoustic attraction of male mosquitos in a cage

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