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Is there any sound more annoying than the whine of a mosquito? Yes, mosquitoes are pests through and through. But there's more to their irritating whine than meets the ear. For mosquitoes, that's the sound of love. It's well known by scientists that the mosquitoes' distinctive buzz functions as a mating call. But one study shows that just before mating, members of a mosquito pair flap their wings just so to create a harmonic duet.
有什么比一只蚊子在你耳边嗡嗡叫个不停更让你恼火的吗？是的，蚊子彻头彻尾是一只害虫，但更气人的是它老在人耳边发牢骚。对蚊子来说，这是爱的声音。科学家们普遍认为蚊子的这种特殊声音还担任着求偶的功能。但是一项研究显示，在一对蚊子进行交配之前，它们会拍打翅膀，这样一个和谐的二重唱就产生了。
Probably the coolest part about this research is how the scientists involved studied mosquito harmonies. Basically, the researchers used little lassos to harness mosquitoes and fly them past each other. They also set up small microphones nearby to catch the insects' love songs. And they put sensors in the mosquitoes ears, or auditory organs, to record how they responded to mating calls. So if you're not a professional or amateur entomologist, why should you care that mosquitoes harmonize before mating?
在这份研究中最酷的一部份，可能是科学家研究蚊子怎样保持协调。调查者们基本上都使用小的套索去套住蚊子，让它们列队飞。同样为了听清楚昆虫的爱的声音，他们就在附近安装了一个小小的麦克风。他们把传感器放在蚊子的耳朵里，或者听觉器官里，来记录它们交配时的声音。所以，如果你不是一个专业人员，或者业余的昆虫爱好学者，你是不会去注意蚊子在交配前的前奏。
Because mosquitoes aren't just annoying pests. They also spread dangerous diseases such as dengue fever, which affects more than fifty million people every year. There's no vaccine for the fever and no preventive measure other than avoiding disease-carrying mosquitoes. Which is where the new study could be important. Learning more about how mosquitoes mate could help scientists invent ways to target mosquitoes in areas at risk for dengue fever. For example, scientists could breed sterile male mosquitoes able to create the right tones and harmonies to compete with wild males and thereby reduce mosquito populations.
因为蚊子并不只是令人生厌的害虫，它们同样传播像登革热这样危险的疾病。每年都有超过5000万人感染上这种疾病。这里没有预防发热的疫苗，而且没有办法避免这种携带病毒的蚊虫。这是一个新的研究，并且是非常重要的。学习更多的关于蚊子如何配偶的知识，将帮助科学家发明一种治疗登革热发热的新方法。比如，科学家可以培育无菌的雄性蚊子，它们能发出正确的音调，来和狂热的雄性蚊子竞争，以此减少带病毒蚊子的总数。
