• DOI:10.1126/science.1174096
• Corpus ID: 206520028

Tiger Moth Jams Bat Sonar

@article{Corcoran2009TigerMJ,
  title={Tiger Moth Jams Bat Sonar},
  author={Aaron J. Corcoran and Jesse R. Barber and William E. Conner},
  journal={Science},
  year={2009},
  volume={325},
  pages={325 - 327}
}

• A. J. Corcoran, J. Barber, W. Conner
• Published 17 July 2009
• Biology
• Science

Moths Battling Bats Many night-flying insects hear the sonar sounds of attacking bats and take evasive action. Among moths, evasive flight is often accompanied by the production of ultrasonic sounds. Three functions of these sounds have been proposed: to startle the bat, to warn of distastefulness, or to “jam” the bat's sonar system. Corcoran et al. (p. 325) studied a species of tiger moth (Bertholdia trigona) that emits a particularly dense series of ultrasonic clicks and the interception behavior of big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) presented with silenced or sound-producing tethered moths. If the moth sounds evoke startle, naïve bats should initially break off their attacks, but then the bats should habituate to the sounds and complete subsequent attacks. In contrast, if the moth sounds have a warning effect, naïve bats should initially complete their attacks on sound-emitting moths, discover that the moths are distasteful, and refuse to capture them in future trials. Most of the bats in the tests reliably caught the silenced moths but avoided completing attacks on sound-producing moths, with no evidence of increasing or decreasing probability of capture from the first to the last trial, which suggests that the moths effectively jammed the bats' sonar. Bertholdia trigona thwarts the attacks of bats by generating bursts of ultrasound that interfere with the bats’ sonar system. In response to sonar-guided attacking bats, some tiger moths make ultrasonic clicks of their own. The lepidopteran sounds have previously been shown to alert bats to some moths’ toxic chemistry and also to startle bats unaccustomed to sonic prey. The moth sounds could also interfere with, or “jam,” bat sonar, but evidence for such jamming has been inconclusive. Using ultrasonic recording and high-speed infrared videography of bat-moth interactions, we show that the palatable tiger moth Bertholdia trigona defends against attacking big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) using ultrasonic clicks that jam bat sonar. Sonar jamming extends the defensive repertoire available to prey in the long-standing evolutionary arms race between bats and insects.