Science: Talking Mosquitoes

Do mosquitoes talk? Yes, chorused three researchers at the Cornell University Medical College last week. The savants proudly announced in Science that they had succeeded in amplifying and recording mosquito mating calls.

Drs. Morton C. Kahn, William Celestin and William Offenhauser, casting about for new ways to destroy mosquitoes that might be safer and cheaper than insecticides, hit on the idea of luring them into traps. The first step was to find out whether mosquitoes are able to communicate with each other.

Except for the shrill whine of their wings, most varieties make no sound audible to man. But the Cornell researchers caged...

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