Tiger Moths Scare Bats With Ultrasonic Clicks

[n2doc]

By Duncan Geere, Wired.co.uk August 19, 2010

It’s kinda tough being a moth. Not only do you have to go through the icky process of pupating, but you’re also the favorite food of bats, which use ultrasonic echolocation to swoop down and pounce on you when you’re just trying to have some fun, flapping around a lightbulb.

But one species, Cycnia tenera, which is known to its friends as the Toxic Dogbane Tiger Moth, has evolved special bat-detecting ears that contain neurons sensitive to the frequencies used by the bats for their echolocation clicks. Not only that, but the moth has even worked out how to generate ultrasonic pulses itself, confusing the bat into aborting the attack.

In an Aug. 18 Proceedings of the Royal Society B study, the group put moths in a dark chamber covered with sound insulation, played them the sounds of a bat’s echolocation calls, and recorded their responses with a microphone. The recordings were then analyzed to find out how the moths react to the bats.



Read More http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/moth-jamming/

[xchrom]

1. what a name for a moth with giraffe like markings. nt

[montanto]

2. Sheesh, what kind of friend would call you

Toxic Dogbane I wonder?