Deep Look

Youre settling in for a nap.

[buzzing mosquito] Just as you drift off [buzzing mosquito] Thats the sound of a femalemosquitos wings.

[buzzing mosquito] Shoo!

Shes on her way to bite you.

When Aedes aegypti females dig in, they can transmit dangerous diseases, like yellow fever and dengue.

Only females bite us.

She needs yournutritious blood to make her eggs.

Of course, she also needsa date.

An aerial romance.

Scientists are studying howexactly mosquitoes hook up.

The sound of a females wings flapping helps a male find her.

It turns out, male mosquitoes are really good listeners.

My, what hairy antennae you have!

His antennae give him exquisitely sensitivehearing.

And for him, sound is the stuff of life.

As he flies, he can beat his wings over 1,000times per second.

This churns out a whiny tone, with the loudest frequency around 600 hertz.

[buzzing mosquito] A female beats her wings slower, withher loudest frequency around 400 hertz.

[buzzing mosquito] Check this out.

If you blast a tonearound 400 hertz out of your headphones, a male is drawn in like a magnet.

[electronic tone] Eventhis electronic sound does the trick.

The male hears the difference between his sound and hers.

[electronic tone] First, hes gotta go where the ladieshang out.

So, even though he doesnt bite you, he makes the rounds at one of their favorite lunchspots.

Your ankles.

Our foot stink attracts them.

When she flies by, her wings move the air, which moves his antennae and all its hairs.

This triggers sensors inside these roundpedicels at the base of his antennae.

His ears between his eyes.

Thesensors 16,000 of them send information to the brain.

Thats as manysensory cells as we have in each ear.

He follows his ears to a female.

[buzzing mosquitoes] But,buzzkill ... [buzzing mosquito] She just kicks him away.

It turns out, this happens a lot.

In one experiment,researchers tethered females to strands of hair so they could film them flying in slow motion.

[buzzing mosquitoes] They found that males getrejected 85% of the time.

[buzzing mosquitoes] Ouch!

If a male doesnt get the boot, he moves toface her and hangs on to her with his legs.

Then he curves his abdomen towards her and usesthese tiny claspers to attach to her body ... and mate in midair for up to 30 seconds.

[buzzing mosquitoes] She only mates once.

Then she finds asmall pool of water and lays hereggs right above the surface.

They become aquatic larvae... then, grow into pupae.

A few days later, an adult pulls itself out.

From air to water and back to the air again.

Great, more mosquitoes in the world.

By studying how mosquitoeslisten carefully to find a mate, maybe scientists can mess with their buzz.