Measuring the fundamental frequency and the harmonic properties of the wingbeat of a large number of mosquitoes in flight using 2D optoacoustic sensors

Abstract Mosquito flight tones occur during locomotion and courtship and are mostly analyzed using microphones. The use of microphones is impractical for analyzing the wingbeat of non-tethered insects especially if one is interested in studying the frequency content of wingbeats of a large number of insects. In this study we present a practical setting based on a novel 2D optical sensor that we embed inside insectary cages to record the wingbeats of three mosquito species belonging to three different genera, namely Culex pipiens molestus , Anopheles gambiae and Aedes albopictus . We show that this setting allows to automatically create distributions of parameters related to wingbeat frequency and harmonic properties derived from many non-tethered wingbeats and therefore characterize the wingbeat properties of a whole species with increased confidence. Implications for potential applications are discussed.