In the last tens of millions of years, some species of moths have developed various strategies to interfere with the echolocation system that bats use to detect and trap them.
Now, a team of researchers from the University of Florida and Boise State University, Idaho, has collected several of these techniques in a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
According to the lepidopteran expert Akito Kawahara, from the Florida Museum of Natural History, who has coordinated the trial, he and his collaborators have studied more than 700 specimens obtained in 70 enclaves in 32 countries , from the Amazon rainforests to those of Borneo.
Of the 124 species of sphincters analyzed, almost half were capable of generating a kind of acoustic defense by means of ultrasound with their genitalia; others, thanks to membranes located in the thorax. In addition, many could detect the calls that bats made when they were about to attack.
In the opinion of these scientists, these moths developed such abilities about 26 million years ago , when populations of insectivorous bats spread.
The researchers suspect that this strategy is so effective that it would force predators to focus on other targets and that they could even use it against other ultrasound-sensitive animals , such as certain rodents.
They also hope that studying the evolutionary development of these mechanisms will improve our understanding of nocturnal biodiversity and our use of sonar systems.
