Male mosquitoes have an impressive ability to find female mosquitoes by listening for the faint sound of their wingbeats, even in noisy swarms.
A new study from Nagoya University in Japan has uncovered how they do this—and why current mosquito traps may not be as effective as we thought.
Published in Science Advances, the study reveals that male mosquitoes are wired to hear a much wider range of sounds than females.
This ability helps them track down potential mates by picking up not only the sound of female wings, but also subtle acoustic clues created when male and female wingbeats interact.
These extra sounds, called “distortion products,” give males more detailed information about where to find a female.
The researchers used a method called calcium imaging to observe how mosquito brains respond to sound.
When exposed to different sound frequencies, male mosquito brains lit up with activity in response to both low and high frequencies, while female brains reacted to a narrower range.
According to Designated Assistant Professor Matthew Su, this shows that male mosquitoes are equipped to handle much more complex sound processing than previously known.
This insight helps explain why traps that mimic the sound of female mosquitoes don’t work very well in the wild.
These traps are designed to lure males by playing simple recordings of female wingbeats.
But if males are actually tuned into more complex sound patterns, like the ones created during real mosquito interactions, then the traps may be missing key ingredients needed to attract them effectively.
To better understand the difference between male and female mosquito hearing, the scientists also looked at the genes active in their antennae—the mosquito version of ears.
They found that males have much higher levels of certain genes linked to structures called cilia, tiny hair-like projections that help detect sound vibrations.
One group of genes, known as dyneins, was especially active in males and has been tied to hearing in other insects.
Professor Azusa Kamikouchi, one of the study’s senior authors, explained that this advanced hearing system may be unique to mosquitoes and could be the reason males are so good at finding mates.
Since male mosquitoes rely heavily on sound to locate females, their hearing system may be a valuable target for new mosquito control strategies.
By learning how male mosquitoes process sound at a brain level, researchers hope to develop smarter, more effective traps that can disrupt mosquito mating and help fight the spread of mosquito-borne diseases. This new understanding could be a key step in stopping mosquitoes before they even get the chance to reproduce.
