Fig. 3

Acoustic analysis of free-flying mosquito during courtship. a Representative spectrograms of a mating attempt that resulted in a mating rejection (left) or a copulation (right). The spectrograms show the males fundamental frequency (WBF) and the females’ second harmonic (analysis was performed using the WBFs of each sex). The change in WBF (ΔF) and the time interval between the initial WBF increase and the maximum frequency reached (Δt) is shown for each sex. b Comparison of the rate of frequency increase (ΔF/Δt) for male–female interactions that ended in a rejection (n = 21) or copulation (n = 12). *Signifies a significant difference for a Mann–Whitney U-test (P < 0.01)