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Love bites

January 18, 2000

Biology PhD student Gill Horne and her supervisor, mosquito expert Dr Angela Priestman, have been studying the mating behaviour of mosquitoes in special hotrooms at the University's School of Sciences.

Their aim is to help check the appalling death rate caused by malaria - the deadly disease which is spread by the bloodsucking fly and responsible for more than a million deaths worldwide each year.

The Staffordshire University team has carried out a series of experiments to observe the link between the chemical coating found on mosquitoes and the fly's complex mating behaviour.

The chemical coating, made up of cuticular hydrocarbon, acts like a pheromone and in her experiments Gill covered the bodies of dead female flies with the stimulating substance.

Using digital video recording equipment set up in special labs which replicate tropical temperatures, the actions of male mosquitoes were then observed.

"Although the female was dead the chemical coating still had an effect on the male's behaviour and triggered its mating instincts," said Gill, who has just completed her PhD thesis.

"The male would approach the female in a way you would expect when a mosquito is about to mate. In fact, the male would perform the full mating ritual oblivious to the female's condition."

Dr Priestman says this work reveals that it is the chemical coating which is the key stimulus in the mating habits of mosquitoes.

These results, added Dr Priestman, could have important applications in the battle against malaria.

For example, the Staffordshire research would be of great interest to the work of genetic engineers who are currently attempting to develop a strain of mosquito that does not spread the deadly malaria disease.

Scientists predict that they will be able to develop a 'safe' mosquito within the next five to 10 y"Once such a mosquito exists scientists would want it to reproduce naturally and mate with other flies in the wild," explained Dr Priestman.

"Our research would be useful because with the right chemical coating mosquitoes would be attracted to the new breed and would therefore want to mate with them."

Staffordshire University

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