The most annoying love song ever written: this one’s for the mosquitoes

Actually, I would like to dedicate this post to the lovely Stephanie Zvan of Almost Diamonds. This is because Stephanie recently sent Sci her blogging muse: an entire box of dark chocolate Moose Munch!!!!!! Moose Munch is indeed Sci’s muse, and could not have come at a better time. Stephanie Zvan is awesome for any number of reasons (I particularly recommend her short stories) , but sending food in the mail definitely adds a little extra.
Unfortunately, this means that last night was spent suffering the effects of a Moose Munch overdose. But today Sci is back up and rolling…literally. And to you, Stephanie, the bringer of my mental muse, I give you…a love song. In major fifths. At 600 and 400 Hz.
ResearchBlogging.org Cator et al. “Harmonic convergence in the love songs of the dengue vector mosquito” Science, 2009.
This post brought to you by Stephanie Zvan. And moose munch. Also kilts, rum, and sugar highs.
I’m sure we all know about mosquitoes. I know I cringe at the very sound of that high-pitched whine. If you’re delicious (like Sci), then you KNOW that every time you hear those nasty ear-splitting notes of horror, you can give up, because bug spray or not, you’re going to be scratching for days. But to a lady mosquito, what sounds to us like a teeth-gritting shrill is the hottest love song on the planet.

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