Abstract:
Male mosquitos locate their appropriate mating partners by the detection of species-specific wing beat sounds emitted by their females in flight. The wing beat sounds of five military-relevant infectious disease-vector mosquito species---A. freeborni, A. stephensi, A. albimanus, A. gambi, and Ae. aegypti---were recorded and analyzed for amplitude and spectral variation during flight. The post-processing of the recordings resulted in audio files of approximately 1 s of flight suitable for reproduction using a sampling synthesizer and, additionally, matrices of amplitude and frequency data versus time for the fundamental and any useful higher-order harmonics. The accurate cataloging of these unique wing beat sounds can be used effectively in the design of improved sound traps and automatic electronic species identification devices. [Work supported by a Walter Reed Army Institute of Research ILIR award.]