Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Barber JR
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4352808 | biostudies-other | 2015 Mar
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
Barber Jesse R JR Leavell Brian C BC Keener Adam L AL Breinholt Jesse W JW Chadwell Brad A BA McClure Christopher J W CJ Hill Geena M GM Kawahara Akito Y AY
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20150217 9
Adaptations to divert the attacks of visually guided predators have evolved repeatedly in animals. Using high-speed infrared videography, we show that luna moths (Actias luna) generate an acoustic diversion with spinning hindwing tails to deflect echolocating bat attacks away from their body and toward these nonessential appendages. We pit luna moths against big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) and demonstrate a survival advantage of ∼ 47% for moths with tails versus those that had their tails remo ...[more]