Moth wing scales slightly increase the absorbance of bat echolocation calls.
Coevolutionary arms races between predators and prey can lead to a diverse range of foraging and defense strategies, such as countermeasures between nocturnal insects and echolocating bats. Here, we show how the fine structure of wing scales may help moths by slightly increasing sound absorbance at...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2011-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3212535?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1819169457739661312 |
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| author | Jinyao Zeng Ning Xiang Lei Jiang Gareth Jones Yongmei Zheng Bingwan Liu Shuyi Zhang |
| author_facet | Jinyao Zeng Ning Xiang Lei Jiang Gareth Jones Yongmei Zheng Bingwan Liu Shuyi Zhang |
| author_sort | Jinyao Zeng |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Coevolutionary arms races between predators and prey can lead to a diverse range of foraging and defense strategies, such as countermeasures between nocturnal insects and echolocating bats. Here, we show how the fine structure of wing scales may help moths by slightly increasing sound absorbance at frequencies typically used in bat echolocation. Using four widespread species of moths and butterflies, we found that moth scales are composed of honeycomb-like hollows similar to sound-absorbing material, but these were absent from butterfly scales. Micro-reverberation chamber experiments revealed that moth wings were more absorbent at the frequencies emitted by many echolocating bats (40-60 kHz) than butterfly wings. Furthermore, moth wings lost absorbance at these frequencies when scales were removed, which suggests that some moths have evolved stealth tactics to reduce their conspicuousness to echolocating bats. Although the benefits to moths are relatively small in terms of reducing their target strengths, scales may nonetheless confer survival advantages by reducing the detection distances of moths by bats by 5-6%. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T19:19:49Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9ac7ab987ff740799317e42cc8f5c5f9 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T19:19:49Z |
| publishDate | 2011-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-9ac7ab987ff740799317e42cc8f5c5f92022-12-21T18:15:25ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032011-01-01611e2719010.1371/journal.pone.0027190Moth wing scales slightly increase the absorbance of bat echolocation calls.Jinyao ZengNing XiangLei JiangGareth JonesYongmei ZhengBingwan LiuShuyi ZhangCoevolutionary arms races between predators and prey can lead to a diverse range of foraging and defense strategies, such as countermeasures between nocturnal insects and echolocating bats. Here, we show how the fine structure of wing scales may help moths by slightly increasing sound absorbance at frequencies typically used in bat echolocation. Using four widespread species of moths and butterflies, we found that moth scales are composed of honeycomb-like hollows similar to sound-absorbing material, but these were absent from butterfly scales. Micro-reverberation chamber experiments revealed that moth wings were more absorbent at the frequencies emitted by many echolocating bats (40-60 kHz) than butterfly wings. Furthermore, moth wings lost absorbance at these frequencies when scales were removed, which suggests that some moths have evolved stealth tactics to reduce their conspicuousness to echolocating bats. Although the benefits to moths are relatively small in terms of reducing their target strengths, scales may nonetheless confer survival advantages by reducing the detection distances of moths by bats by 5-6%.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3212535?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Jinyao Zeng Ning Xiang Lei Jiang Gareth Jones Yongmei Zheng Bingwan Liu Shuyi Zhang Moth wing scales slightly increase the absorbance of bat echolocation calls. PLoS ONE |
| title | Moth wing scales slightly increase the absorbance of bat echolocation calls. |
| title_full | Moth wing scales slightly increase the absorbance of bat echolocation calls. |
| title_fullStr | Moth wing scales slightly increase the absorbance of bat echolocation calls. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Moth wing scales slightly increase the absorbance of bat echolocation calls. |
| title_short | Moth wing scales slightly increase the absorbance of bat echolocation calls. |
| title_sort | moth wing scales slightly increase the absorbance of bat echolocation calls |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3212535?pdf=render |
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