Friday, July 17, 2009

Moths Jam Bats’ Echolocation ↦

Fascinating article on tiger moth evolution:

Rates of successful [bat] hunts of moths with intact tymbals [ultrasound-producing organs] were only about a quarter of the rates seen when the tymbal was damaged. Tracking the animal’s hunting patterns in the room shows that, as animals approached a jamming tiger moth, they frequently wound up resetting their approach-track-terminal hunting pattern, going back from tracking a moth to approaching it, or from the terminal attack to tracking.