Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T09:54:53.321Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Flight Responses to Various Sounds by Adult Males of Aedes aegypti (L.) (Diptera: Culicidae)1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2012

Geo. Wishart
Affiliation:
Entomology Laboratory, Belleville, Ontario
D. F. Riordan
Affiliation:
Entomology Laboratory, Belleville, Ontario

Extract

Many authors observed that mosquitoes respond to a large variety of artificial sounds (for references see Roth. 1948). Efforts to attract males of Aedes aegypti (L.) by play-back recoridings of the flight sound of the female have met with moderate success (Kahn et al., 1945; Offenhauser and Kahn, 1949; Kahn and Offenhauser, 1949). Roth (1948) demonstrated that males of A. aegypti approached the sounds of tuninh forks and sine sounds from a speaker. He also determined the upper and lower limits of frequencies that stimulated males, but in these experiments he did not use attraction to the source of the sound as the criterion of response, but the “seizing and clasping”reaction. He exposed the maIe mosquitoes in cages, three inches by three inches by one inch, placed against a box that housed a loud speaker. Under these conditions the mosquitoes had little opportunity to fly to orient themselves toward the sound source. Moreover the sound used was of such intensity (108 db at 2½ inches) that the whole cage vibrated, so that at least part of the response was undoubtedly caused by vibration of the substratum on which the mosquitoes rested. Sounds of such intensity do not normally occur in the natural environment of the mosquito. Moreover, the “seizing and clasping” response does not occur until the male approaches the female in response to sound or other stimulus. If the place of sound in the attraction of thc males is to be studied, the primary response, that of approach, should be the criterion and the amount of sound used should bear a reasonable relation to that occurring in nature.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Entomological Society of Canada 1959

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Goeldi, E. A. 1905. Os mosquitoes no Para. Mem. Mus. Goeldi 4.Google Scholar
Kahn, M. C., Celestin, W., and Qffenhauser, W.. 1945. Recording of sounds produced by certain disease-carrying mosquitoes. Science 101: 335336.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kahn, M. C., and Offenhauser, W.. 1949. The identification of certain West African mosquitoes by sound. American J. Trop. Med. 29: 827836.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Offenhauser, W., and Kahn, M. C.. 1949. The sounds of disease-carrying mosquitoes, Acoust. Soc. America 21: 259263.Google Scholar
Roth, L. M. 1948. A study of mosquito behaviour. An experimental study of the sexual behaviour of Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus). American Midl. Nat. 40: 265352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tischner, H. 1953. Über der Gehörsinn von Stechmücken. Acustica 3: 335343.Google Scholar
Tischner, H. 1955. Gehörsinn und Fluggeräusch bei Stechmücken. Umschau 12: 368370.Google Scholar
Trembley, H. L. 1955. Mosquito culture techniques and experimental procedures. American Mosquito Control Assoc. Bull. 3.Google Scholar