Mosquitoes are musicians

NPR's Morning Edition had a cool piece today about the sound of a mosquito's wings. When mating the Aedes aegypti adjusts its buzz along with its mate to form what's known as a perfect fifth, two notes that are five semitones apart:

The male mosquito's buzz, or flight tone, is normally about 600 cycles per second, or 600-Hz. The female's tone is about 400-Hz. In music, he's roughly a D, and she's about a G. So the male brings his tone into phase with the female's to create a near-perfect duet. Together, the two tones create what musicians call an overtone — a third, fainter tone at 1200-Hz. Only then will the mosquitoes mate.

The story includes a little audio surprise at the end, as well as a video of the mosquitoes in action.