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Moths use acoustic decoys to dodge bat attacks – new research

(Version anglaise seulement)

par Marc Holderied, Professor in Sensory Biology, University of Bristol
Thomas R Neil, Postdoctoral Research Associate, School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol

In dark skies around the world there unfolds a nightly battle between bats and the nocturnal insects upon which they feast. You’d have thought bats, equipped as they are with echolocation, in which they navigate using sound, would have no trouble gobbling up the apparently clueless insects you see banging against your windows after dusk.

But bats evolved their ultrasonic sensitivity 65 million years ago. That’s more than enough time for natural selection to kick in on the behalf of insects, leading to a host of…

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