Striped mouse

Striped mouse

Striped mouse (Rhabdomys pumilio) on the cover of the August edition of Behaviour

Striped mouse (Rhabdomys pumilio) on the cover of the August edition of Behaviour
My photo and the accompanying paper (see List of publications) were published in this issue.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Summary: Corcoran et al. (2009)

 It has been hypothesized that the ultrasonic clicks made by some moth species in the presence of bats either warn bats of moth toxicity (aposematic signalling), startle bats that are not accustomed to sonic prey or are used to "jam" the bats echolocating signal. Tiger moths Bertholdia trigona are known to make ultrasonic clicks in response to the sonar clicks of some bats, such as big brown bats Eptesicus fuscus. Corcoran et al. (2009) studied which of these hypotheses is most likely for tiger moths using ultrasonic recording and high-speed infrared videography when moths interacted with bats. They found that tiger moths ultrasonic clicking jams big brown bat sonar. Sonar jamming has likely evolved in an evolutionary arms race between bats and insects.

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