3D audio-visual recordings of mosquito wings for aeroacoustic simulation

TL;DR

This study combines experimental and computational methods to record and simulate mosquito wing sounds in 3D, advancing understanding of mosquito acoustic communication and its potential for disease vector research.

Contribution

It introduces a novel integrated approach for capturing and simulating 3D mosquito wing sounds using high-speed imaging and microphone arrays.

Findings

Simultaneous 20k fps imaging and 3D sound recording of mosquitoes.

Successful extraction of wing deformation and sound maps.

Good agreement between simulated and recorded wing-tone sounds.

Abstract

Mosquito acoustic communication is studied for its singular and poorly-known in-flight hearing mechanism, for its efficiency in mechanical-to-acoustical power transduction, as well as for being the deadliest disease vector. A combined computational and experimental methods to predict and extract the wing-tone sound from individual tethered or free-flying mosquitoes was developed. This paper describes the experimental methods and gives some preliminary results of the simulations. Simultaneous slow-motion images (20k fps) and 3D-sound of Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes were recorded. The sound map around the mosquitoes was recorded in one or two planes with a rotating array of 12-microphones. Backilluminated mosquito-wings allowed to extract 11 veincrossing locations on each high-speed camera image over 3-4 wingbeat periods to generate 3D deformations of the wing. Simultaneous 3D sound data recorded by microphone arrays were post-processed by using the physicsbased independent component analysis to filter out the noise and generate a 3D sound map. The simulated wingtone sound pattern generated from the aeroacoustic simulation agrees well with the original recording in the experiment using the microphone array. The methods we developed will allow us to investigate the wing-tone soundscape of individual mosquitoes during the courtship and mate-chasing.