According to a study, mosquitoes can hear sounds from afar

Perhaps mosquitoes could listen to your conversations: researchers from Binghamton University and Cornell University have discovered that Aedes aegypti Antennas of mosquitoes can detect noises at least 10 meters away.

The study, published in Current biology On February 7, it was shown that mosquitoes, previously thought to have only limited hearing ability, can actually hear sounds from a distance, said a Binghamton University press release . Through this study, scientists can better understand how mosquitoes use their senses to detect food sources and potential partners.

Professors from both universities collaborated to test the high auditory abilities of mosquitoes. Laura Harrington and Ron Hoy of Cornell University have studied the impact of mosquito hearing on mating behavior, and Hoy asked post-doc Gil Menda about the impact of mosquito hearing on mating behavior. Record the nerve activity of the mosquito antenna when it was stimulated by noises. The team discovered that the nerves of mosquitoes were sensitive to distant sounds.

After this step, Hoy and Menda teamed up with Professor Ron Miles from Binghamton University to place the mosquitoes in his lab, designed to absorb sounds without background noise or sound reflections. In this silent, anechoic room, the team tested mosquito responses to different noises, including flying female mosquito noises for male mosquitoes. Interestingly enough, male mosquitoes reacted only to female noises and took off when they heard these noises.

The experimental setup to test the auditory abilities of mosquitoes. (Photo credit: The long and lack of hearing in the mosquito «Aedes aegypti» / Current biology)

"We have been able to observe the behavior of male mosquitoes vis-à-vis the recorded sounds of male or female mosquitoes," Miles said in a press release. "We were also able to measure the neural response of their antennas and found that they could hear sounds from a surprisingly far distance in the same frequencies as those used for human speech."

The study did not investigate whether the auditory abilities of mosquitoes could help them find human hosts, but it did reveal interesting information about the importance of noise for mating activities of these insects.

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