MEASUREMENT OF FLIGHT TONE DIFFERENTIATES AMONG MEMBERS OF THE ANOPHELES-GAMBIAE SPECIES COMPLEX (DIPTERA, CULICIDAE)

Through digital sampling and resampling at 5,000 and 20,000 Hz of ampl ified mosquito flight sound, baseline separation was observed for flig ht tone frequency distributions of male and female Anopheles gambiae G iles, An. arabiensis, Patton, An. merus Donitz, and An. melas Theobald . Males of the 4 species showed flight tones considerably higher than females. Up to 7 harmonics were measured for each species. Close corre spondence for each individual mosquito of the means of the night tone harmonics (corrected for harmonic number) demonstrated the accuracy an d precision of the method. These data indicate that night tone differe nces have been subjected to selection and may act as an isolating mech anism for mating or serve some other behavioral purpose in these mosqu itoes. Individuals and swarms of sympatric species were distinguished from each other for both males and females, but the allopatric species , An. merus and An. melas, were indistinguishable.