My Mosquitoes

A Paper submitted for the ASA Hawaii Meeting

Abstract submitted for the 132nd meeting of the Acoustical Society of America
Honolulu, Hawaii 2--6 December, 1966

Analysis of mosquito wing beat sound.

Richard H. Campbell (ECE Department, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 100 Institute Road, Worcester, MA 01609), Samuel K. Martin, Imogene Schneider (Department of Entomology, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, DC 20307) and William R. Michalson (ECE Department, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 100 Institute Road, Worcester, MA 01609)

Male mosquitoes 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 one second of flight suitable for reproduction using a sampling synthesizer and, additionally, matrices of amplitude and frequency data vs. 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]

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