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> why would the females choose the infected one Why would the females choose the sexy Cuban mosquitoes? I always wonder this. Maybe they sing better songs wit

> why would the females choose the infected one Why would the females choose the sexy Cuban mosquitoes? I always wonder this. Maybe they sing better songs with its wings. Or maybe, because being genetically different is attractive for females. The bigger the genetic mix, the more healthy, disease free and stronger the offspring. Or maybe they aren't choosing and just have a random brief encounters with as many males as possible. This is a question for an entomologist, but I would not expect mosquitoes behaving as humans in a prom necessarily.

LeifCarrotson 6y ago
Mosquito females cannot submit genetic samples of potential mates to a sequencing laboratory. They cannot determine which of two males has a "bigger genetic mix". It's really easy to anthropomorphize the mosquitoes or to anthropomorphize natural selection; we shouldn't ascribe that kind of agency to them. Instead, reason about the consequences that we observe after the fact: perhaps the modified male mosquitoes are drawn from a different population than the local, unmodified males, and the groups have slightly different colorings. A random group of females might prefer the modified color, a different group might have no preference, and a different group might prefer the local color. After a few generations, the latter group will dominate. That's not because the female mosquitoes or Mother Nature made any kind of effort to find mates with good genetic material. No such agency was present in the process. Instead, those random behaviors that incidentally resulted in selecting good mates were more likely to be passed down.
- Grustaf 6y ago
  > Mosquito females cannot submit genetic samples of potential mates to a sequencing laboratory. They cannot determine which of two males has a "bigger genetic mix". Of course they can, you don't need to sequence DNA to get an idea of genetic affinity, you have the phenotype. I don't know about mosquitoes, but all higher animals obviously judge mates on genetics (based on the phenotype).

LeifCarrotson 6y ago

Mosquito females cannot submit genetic samples of potential mates to a sequencing laboratory. They cannot determine which of two males has a "bigger genetic mix". It's really easy to anthropomorphize the mosquitoes or to anthropomorphize natural selection; we shouldn't ascribe that kind of agency to them. Instead, reason about the consequences that we observe after the fact: perhaps the modified male mosquitoes are drawn from a different population than the local, unmodified males, and the groups have slightly different colorings. A random group of females might prefer the modified color, a different group might have no preference, and a different group might prefer the local color. After a few generations, the latter group will dominate. That's not because the female mosquitoes or Mother Nature made any kind of effort to find mates with good genetic material. No such agency was present in the process. Instead, those random behaviors that incidentally resulted in selecting good mates were more likely to be passed down.

Grustaf 6y ago
> Mosquito females cannot submit genetic samples of potential mates to a sequencing laboratory. They cannot determine which of two males has a "bigger genetic mix". Of course they can, you don't need to sequence DNA to get an idea of genetic affinity, you have the phenotype. I don't know about mosquitoes, but all higher animals obviously judge mates on genetics (based on the phenotype).