Moths Block Bats' Sonar
A hungry bat screeches out ultrasonic waves and listens as they echo off surrounding objects. One of those echoes sounds an awful lot like a tasty moth, so it swoops in for the kill--but grabs only air. Thwarted again by the tiger moth
Bertholdia trigona. New research explains the clever defense; the moth emits ultrasonic clicks that throw off bats' sonarlike echolocation, like jamming a radio signal. It's the first time this type of acoustic interference has been demonstrated in the natural world.
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