Bats, as the main predator of night-flying insects, create a selective pressure that has led many of their prey to evolve an early warning system of sorts: ears uniquely tuned to high-frequency bat echolocation. To date, scientists have found at least six orders of insects -- including moths, beetles, crickets and grasshoppers -- that have evolved ears capable of detecting ultrasound.
The researchers began by confirming that tiger beetles produced ultrasound in response to bat predation. As bats fly through the night sky, they periodically send out ultrasonic pulses, which gives them snapshots of their surroundings. When a bat has located potential prey, they start clicking more frequently, allowing them to lock on to their targets.
Instead, they suspected that tiger beetles, which produce benzaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide as defensive chemicals, were using ultrasound to warn bats that they are noxious -- like many moths do. "Even if you identify a chemical, that doesn't mean it's a defense against a particular predator," Kawahara said."You don't actually know until you do the experiment with the predator."
But this behavior is limited to tiger beetles that fly at night. Some of the 2,000 species of tiger beetles are active exclusively during the day, using their vision to chase and hunt smaller insects, and don't have the selective pressure of bat predation. The 12 diurnal tiger beetle species that the researchers included in the study are evidence of this.
Wild Animals Animals Endangered Animals Zoology New Species Invasive Species Cats
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