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Short Communication
Nickolay I. Hristov, William E. Conner (2005): Sound strategy: acoustic
aposematism in the bat-tiger moth arms race. Naturwissenschaften, 92(4),
164-169.
Abstract: The night sky is the venue for an ancient arms race. Insectivorous
bats with their ultrasonic sonar exert an enormous selective pressure on
nocturnal insects. In response insects have evolved the ability to hear bat
cries, to evade their hunting maneuvers, and some, the tiger moths
(Arctiidae), to utter an ultrasonic reply. We here determine what it is that
tiger moths say to bats. We chose four species of arctiid moths, Cycnia
tenera, Euchaetes egle, Utetheisa ornatrix, and Apantesis nais, that
naturally differ in their levels of unpalatability and their ability to
produce sound. Moths were tethered and offered to free-flying naive big
brown bats, Eptesicus fuscus. The ability of the bats to capture each
species was compared to their ability to capture noctuid, geometrid, and wax
moth controls over a learning period of 7 days. We repeated the experiment
using the single arctiid species E. egle that through diet manipulation and
simple surgery could be rendered palatable or unpalatable and sound
producing or mute. We again compared the capture rates of these categories
of E. egle to control moths. Using both novel learning approaches we have
found that the bats only respond to the sounds of arctiids when they are
paired with defensive chemistry. The sounds are in essence a warning to the
bats that the moth is unpalatable?an aposematic signal.
URL of article:
http://springerlink.metapress.com/link.asp?id=H21G437R34457115
DOI URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00114-005-0611-7
Regards
Sonja Amoser
Sonja Amoser, PhD Student
University of Vienna, Dep. of Neurobiology and Behavior
Althanstrasse 14, 1090 Vienna, Austria
Phone: +43-1-4277-54467 oder +43-664-5006106 (private)
Fax: +43-1-4277-54506
email:
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