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Moths Outwit Bats By Jamming Sonar

npr.org — Bats are among nature's cleverest predators, using ultrasonic signals to locate their prey at night. But one species of tiger moth has learned to outfox the bats by jamming the bat's sonar using its own bursts of ultrasound.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jul 17, 2009

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  • thefuckingshark, on 07/17/2009, -2/+28***** yeah evolution.
  • masterkenobi, on 07/17/2009, -0/+9there's only one man who would DARE give me the raspberry.....LONESTAR!!!!!!

    /corrected
  • justdru, on 07/17/2009, -1/+10Awesome! This means moths are good at something other than scurrying in the door when I come inside and attacking my lightbulbs!!
  • inactive, on 07/17/2009, -4/+10Damn nature, sometimes you so cool !
  • collution, on 07/17/2009, -1/+7yo comment so cool !
  • sageerrant, on 07/17/2009, -0/+5Yo dawg, I heard you like comments...
  • bixel, on 07/17/2009, -0/+3That is totally cool.
  • mHtt, on 07/18/2009, -0/+3http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXKOsajNZY4

    -There's only one man who would dare give me the raspberry!
  • veriix, on 07/17/2009, -0/+3For those who want the article to read to you: http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.ht ...
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  • XZanatos, on 07/18/2009, -0/+3You didn't actually read the article did you?

    1. The moths were tethered to a string, so their ability to dodge bats was not a factor. Plus you have not explained if tymbol removal affects moth's flying ability at all. It probably doesn't

    2. He did this many times with different bats. It says so in the NPR summary. I mean, really? Attacking someone's work by using a SECOND HAND SUMMARY as your source, from a non-scientific oriented site even. Try reading the actual report in Science journal. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/sci ...

    3. Who says its appearance is sudden? Answer- only you. Several species of moths are able to emit ultrasonic frequencies for various purposes. Bats are one of the main predators of nocturnal flying insects and guess what? Moths ARE nocturnal flying insects. Its only natural that they would evolve defenses.

    4. Didn't RTFA did you? From the article, "Then the moth turns on its sound production, which sounds almost like a siren because the pitch is going up and down." Siren = not canceling anything. You asked, "Have they even tested the frequencies of the noise emitted?" Well did they? Just asking lots of questions doesn't make you intelligent, try to actually find answers. OR you could just watch the movie and listen to the ultrasonic chirps they recorded.

    You don't know anything at all about the experiment, all you did is read a half page summary. "or I see some actual data for this one" Thankyou for showing how idiotic you are, you just ADMITTED that you know nothing about the experiment. Try to "see some actual data" before you start criticizing scientific experiments.

    HERE IS A FAR MORE DETAILED EXPLANATION OF THE RESEARCH:
    http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2009/07/ti ...

    And here is a link to the ACTUAL report
    http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/sci ...
    sorry I don't have a subscription. You can always go to your public library though.
  • TobiasParker, on 07/17/2009, -1/+3I wasn't going to comment because all i can think to say is "That is ***** awesome."

    However, except for a Spaceballs reference, that is all anyone else has said as well.

    So basically, what i am trying to say here is that is ***** awesome.
  • veriix, on 07/17/2009, -0/+2They aren't canceling each other out, they're confusing the bats.
  • TBolt, on 07/18/2009, -0/+2I swear...really hot women must have this. Every time I approach them at the bar, I get distracted, confused and eventually give up...trying to get laid.
  • Arthaven, on 07/17/2009, -0/+2That's damn awesome! Should have way more diggs than it does.
  • SveedeshCheef, on 07/17/2009, -0/+2Raspberry! Only one man dares give me the raspberry....
  • Rhopalopterum, on 07/17/2009, -1/+3No more 'I for one welcome...' or 'damn nature you scary' comments below this line. Sorry, Ollie & Kent, not today.
    _______________________________________________________
  • ultraseamus, on 07/17/2009, -0/+2Found it funny that his first step was to cut up a bunch of moths and run the test. Only after that did he decide to run the test with complete moths. Seemed backwards to me.
  • srodolff, on 07/18/2009, -0/+2I'm getting a little tired of this "one animal outsmarts another" line of thinking.

    It's called Natural Selection. All of the non-jamming moths are mostly eaten leaving the jamming ones. Even wonder why there are no short giraffes?
  • ASSASSYN360, on 07/18/2009, -0/+2Bats are developing 5th generation bats with vector flap and a new ultra low frequency echo location capability. F-22 batwing.
  • Whackly, on 07/18/2009, -0/+2It would appear that danfrnz is unaware that the raspberry is a gesture/facial expression and therefore didn't remember the 2nd layer of the joke. Let's turn this obvious commentary over to Ollie for the Blackuweather report. Ollie?
  • Dankenbring, on 07/17/2009, -0/+2God I hate people who use UAV Jammer
  • AlienMushroom, on 07/17/2009, -0/+2***** moth.
  • TobiasParker, on 07/17/2009, -1/+3I, for one, welcome our new moth overl.......hey...hey what are you doing, put the knife down, put it down!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
  • pelgi109, on 07/18/2009, -0/+2The moth's jamming process probably looks something like this:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcArnepkhv0
  • TobiasParker, on 07/17/2009, -0/+1Actually by discovering that the moths who don't make the sound get eaten, he could then state definitively that the sound was why they were not eaten.
  • BoostinSRT, on 07/17/2009, -3/+4Evolution at work
  • TobiasParker, on 07/17/2009, -0/+1also, insects that eat primarily at night will be more likely to be eaten by bats than birds.
  • ultraseamus, on 07/17/2009, -0/+1Except, he did not start by scientifically proving moths who make the sound do not get eaten, he did that afterward, suggesting he did not already know (or it was not already proven). The only definitive thing he could say after the first test, is that bats eat moths. Maybe it had already been tested, and his second test was just to make sure he did not have super powered bats that could outsmart any moth. Just seemed odd to me.
  • stuffradio, on 07/17/2009, -0/+1and eating your clothes!
  • masterkenobi, on 07/17/2009, -2/+3stares at the line blankly......

























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  • SummerofGeorge, on 07/17/2009, -0/+1*****! beat me to it
  • PsychoPNut, on 07/17/2009, -0/+1i think that's jelly... for the last one you say you do.
  • Black6x, on 07/18/2009, -0/+1LONESTAR!!
  • MrBester, on 07/18/2009, -1/+2OOOOHH I'VE GOT A FEEEELIINGG... THAT LOVE IS HERE TO STAAAY

    When asked for a response, the bats squeaked "What the hell was that?"
  • blakeage, on 07/18/2009, -0/+1I don't think he was attacking the article, he was simply making observations. If anything, you're attacking him.
  • dsmile, on 07/17/2009, -1/+2Why don't you prove your theory by showing how a series of one gene mutations add the ability to jam sonar. Keep in mind your mutations have to happen before the bats can eat all of the non-jamming moths. Might work in a video game but how about in the real bat eat moth world?
  • palanthos, on 07/18/2009, -0/+1I see what you did there.
  • anthropodeus, on 07/18/2009, -0/+1this is a pretty poor place to try to have an evolution-creationism argument. the creationists could just say that the gods made moths with sonar jammers to defend themselves against bats.

    dsmile is actually right that just pointing out a cool trait does not verify evolution - you have to show how the intermediate steps from no-sonar-jamming to sonar-jamming would have been possible. for example, flagella are wonders of evolution, but until recently scientists were unsure of how flagella, which are essentially freely-rotating wheels with a fiber attached, could have evolved. turns out they are evolved from ATP synthase (i believe), which is used in photosynthesis.
  • AntP1, on 07/17/2009, -3/+3Ok creationists - have at it.
  • ChoixAkion, on 07/18/2009, -1/+0Certain moths made a sound that made it harder for bats to target them which means they where more likely to survive and pass on those traits to their young, then it just keeps going like that until the technique is perfected many generations later.

    That's evolution 101 right there...

  • moonasha, on 07/17/2009, -6/+2I don't like this article at all.

    1. He chopped a chunk of the moths off for testing. Now, I'm not pissed because of that directly, but it's just bad experimenting. I mean, you'd think something with a chunk of it cut off would not be as good at out maneuvering bats. Try it yourself sometime! Cut your ears off and try to outrun someone.

    2. How many times did he do this? Maybe one moth was better at escaping bats. Maybe one bat was tired after doing the experiment 50 times before with neutered moths. Give me some data please. And no, one video is not enough. More than one questionable experiment too, before we say this is absolute. Obviously, not every moth with the "jamming" would escape. How many didn't? If it was zero, the experiment wasn't done enough times.

    3. Ultrasound jamming? The ultrasound itself is quite an evolved mechanism. Ultrasound jamming would be amazing. A sudden appearance of a mechanism so specialized is quite questionable. Moths have more predators than just bats. Birds, other insects, spiders, etc.

    4. Have they even tested the frequencies of the noise emitted? Do they know for sure that the two actually cancel each other out?

    Until another experiment comes along that is better, preferably one designed to prove it wrong, or I see some actual data for this one, I will take this with a grain of salt.
  • danfrnz, on 07/17/2009, -9/+3there's only one man that uses strawberry jam.... LONESTAR!
  • weister42, on 07/17/2009, -13/+4I jam my bread in the morning, sit in traffic jams at dusk, jam in the clubs at night and try jam in some girl's vagina afterwards.

    I'd say I'm a pretty clever jammer too.

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