Does acoustic signalling predict mating success in mosquito lines?

疟疾、登革热和基孔肯雅热等蚊子传播疾病的控制在很大程度上仍然依赖于蚊子种群的控制。不幸的是，我们用来控制蚊子种群的许多工具目前正受到杀虫剂抗药性进化的威胁。研究人员正在开发新的策略来管理蚊子种群。有几种新的有希望的策略涉及基因或生殖控制。在这些情况下，雄性将在实验室被大规模饲养，并被释放到大自然中，在那里它们将需要与野生雄性竞争配偶。这些雄性蚊子将提供减少蚊子数量或减少种群传播疾病的能力的技术。不幸的是，我们对蚊子的交配行为知之甚少。具体地说，我们不知道是什么让男性对女性有吸引力。在这个项目中，我们建议研究新发现的声音信号，以确定我们是否可以利用雄性信号传递能力来准确预测实验室饲养的雄性在与野生雄性竞争中的表现。到目前为止，我们知道趋同事件的存在对女性的选择很重要，但我们不知道她关注的是信号的哪些组成部分。首先，我们将测量信号成分，如潜伏期、速率、射程和一致性，同时记录活蚊子之间的交配互动，以确定哪些最能预测雄性交配成功。用于放生的雄性将需要在实验室饲养。因此，了解教养方式如何影响雄性求爱信号是很重要的。然而，环境在塑造这些信号中的作用还没有被研究过。我们将使用人工回放来测量在不同实验室条件下的雄性动物的信号传递能力。最后，我们将使用这一新知识来确定谐和收敛信号能力是否可以预测雄性在野外条件下的表现。我们将在大型野外笼子中测试具有低或高信号性能的雄性与野生雄性的对比。这将使我们能够测试声学测量是否可以在饲养计划中用作雄性的高通量分析。在这个项目的结束时，我们将加深对蚊子性别选择的理解，并开发出一种新的控制计划的工具。

The control of mosquito transmitted diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, and Chikungunya is still largely dependent on mosquito population control. Unfortunately, many of the tools we use to control mosquito populations are currently threatened by the evolution of insecticide resistance. Researchers are developing new strategies to manage mosquito populations. Several new promising strategies involve genetic or reproductive control. In these cases, males will be mass reared in the laboratory and released into nature where they will need to compete with wild males for mates. These males will deliver technologies that will either reduce the mosquito population or the population's ability to transmit disease. Unfortunately, we know very little about mosquito mating behaviour. Specifically, we do not know what makes a male attractive to females. In this project, we propose to investigate newly discovered acoustic signals to determine if we can use male signalling ability to accurately predict how laboratory reared males will perform in competition with wild males. So far we know that the presence of a convergence event it important for female choice, but we do not know which components of the signal she is paying attention to. First, we will measure signal components such as latency, rate, range, and consistency while recording mating interactions between live mosquitoes to determine which are most predictive of male mating success. Males used in releases will need to be reared in the laboratory. Thus, understanding how rearing practices influence male courtship signals is important. However, the role of environment in shaping these signals has not been investigated. We will use artificial playbacks to measure the signalling performance of males that have been subjected to various laboratory conditions. Finally, we will use this new knowledge to determine if harmonic convergence signalling ability is a predictor of how males will perform under field conditions. We will test males with low or high signalling performance against wild males in large field cages. This will allow us to test if acoustic measurement could be used as a high-throughput assay to males in rearing programs. At the conclusion of this project, we will have advanced our understanding of sexual selection in mosquitoes and developed a new tool for control programs.