Collaborative Research: Acoustic Deflection in Bat-Moth Interactions: Revealing the Mechanism and Evolution of a Sensory Illusion

合作研究：蝙蝠与飞蛾相互作用中的声学偏转：揭示感官错觉的机制和演变

• 批准号: 1920895
• 负责人: Akito Kawahara
• 金额: $ 60.01万
• 依托单位: University of Florida
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1920895&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Acoustic; Deflection; Bat

Predators are under pressure to perform lethal strikes on prey. Prey, in turn, are under pressure to deflect predators away from vital body parts. To do so, some animals have evolved traits to take advantage of their assailants' sensory systems and vulnerabilities therein, creating sensory illusions - that is, discrepancies between what the predator perceives and reality. Understanding how prey manipulate sensory processing by their predators will reveal important driving principles and limitations of sensory systems. This team of researchers has shown that moth tails divert echolocating bat attack to these expendable appendages by creating an acoustic illusion. Using arrays of high-speed cameras and ultrasonic microphones, this research will quantify battles between bats and long-tailed moths and reveal the underlying mechanism of this illusion. To provide naturally replicated tests of their hypotheses, the team will study multiple origins of long tails in moths on different continents and incorporate this knowledge into a comprehensive phylogeny. In doing so, they will parse the roles of both constraint and selection on the emergence of convergent traits to reveal general principles that govern diversification. The team will engage in activities to broaden the impact of their work. For example, they will live videoconference from the field into undergraduate classrooms to use the natural charisma of bat-moth interactions to excite students and increase STEM retention. In addition, the team will produce a museum exhibit that will include hundreds of moth specimens, a rendition of the resulting phylogeny and multiple computer monitors displaying high-speed videos of bat-moth interactions. Tactics adapted to circumvent the sensing strategies of predators are likely underappreciated defenses in diverse taxa. This project will determine the mechanism underlying deflection of bat attack by moth tails. The team will use 3D high-speed videography of bat-moth interactions to parse mechanistic hypotheses by quantifying precisely where bats strike their prey. In addition, they will quantify the physical information available to bats in returning echoes from moths using a 3D ensonification array and then pit those moths against bats in predator-prey battles to examine auditory object formation by the predator. The fundamentals of how bats organize and separate the auditory scene bear strongly on bat and insect ecology and evolution. By quantifying behavior across silk moth diversity, the team aims to test the evolutionary route of echoic profile convergence. They will quantify echoes reflected off hundreds of silk moth species across the world's tropics and build a robust phylogeny to unfold the pattern of convergent evolution and tease apart the roles of both historical bias and selection on the independent origins of this anti-bat defense. Understanding how moth tails alter echoic information to "fool" bats will reveal the limitations of an active sensing system that has been honed by millions of years of battling insect counter-defenses and may lead to an understanding of the fundamental limitations of extracting information from an echo stream. Further, this project has broad implications for the evolution of the diverse nocturnal insects, one of the dominant animal lineages on Earth.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

捕食者在压力下对猎物进行致命打击。猎物，反过来，在压力下转移捕食者远离重要的身体部位。为了做到这一点，一些动物进化出了利用攻击者的感官系统及其脆弱性的特征，创造感官错觉--也就是说，捕食者所感知的与现实之间的差异。了解猎物如何操纵其捕食者的感觉处理将揭示重要的驱动原则和限制的感觉系统。这组研究人员已经证明，飞蛾的尾巴通过制造一种声音错觉，将回声定位蝙蝠的攻击转移到这些可消耗的附属物上。利用高速摄像机和超声波麦克风阵列，这项研究将量化蝙蝠和长尾蛾之间的战斗，并揭示这种错觉的潜在机制。为了对他们的假设进行自然复制的测试，该团队将研究不同大陆蛾类长尾的多种起源，并将这些知识纳入全面的遗传学中。在此过程中，他们将分析约束和选择对趋同特征出现的作用，以揭示管理多样化的一般原则。该小组将开展活动，扩大其工作的影响。例如，他们将从现场直播视频会议到本科生课堂，利用蝙蝠蛾互动的自然魅力来激发学生并提高STEM保留率。此外，该团队还将制作一个博物馆展览，其中将包括数百个蛾标本，再现由此产生的繁殖和多个计算机显示器显示蝙蝠蛾互动的高速视频。适应于规避捕食者的感知策略的策略可能在不同的类群中被低估了。这个项目将确定蝙蝠攻击蛾尾偏转的机制。该团队将使用蝙蝠蛾相互作用的3D高速视频，通过精确量化蝙蝠攻击猎物的位置来解析机械假说。此外，他们还将使用3D ensonification阵列量化蝙蝠在返回飞蛾回声时可获得的物理信息，然后在捕食者-猎物战斗中将这些飞蛾与蝙蝠对抗，以检查捕食者的听觉物体形成。蝙蝠如何组织和分离听觉场景的基本原理与蝙蝠和昆虫的生态学和进化密切相关。通过量化蚕蛾多样性的行为，该团队的目标是测试回声轮廓收敛的进化路线。他们将量化世界各地热带地区数百种蚕蛾物种的回声，并建立一个强大的进化史，以揭示趋同进化的模式，并区分历史偏见和选择对这种反蝙蝠防御的独立起源的作用。了解飞蛾尾巴如何改变回声信息来“愚弄”蝙蝠，将揭示一个主动传感系统的局限性，这个系统已经被数百万年来与昆虫的反防御斗争所磨练，并可能导致对从回声流中提取信息的基本局限性的理解。此外，该项目对地球上占主导地位的动物谱系之一的多种夜行昆虫的进化具有广泛的影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Predictors of sequence capture in a large-scale anchored phylogenomics project

• DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2022.943361
• 发表时间: 2022-11
• 作者: Renato Nunes;Caroline G. Storer;Tenzing Doleck;A. Kawahara;N. Pierce;David J. Lohman

Frass in the Class: A Model for Fostering Interest in the Natural World Through Insect Rearing in the Classroom

课堂上的弗拉斯：通过课堂饲养昆虫培养对自然世界兴趣的模式

• DOI: 10.1093/ae/tmab042
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: American Entomologist
• 作者: Markee, Amanda;Dansby, Hailey;Messcher, Rebeccah;Hernandez, Emily;Kawahara, Akito Y;Storer, Caroline G
• 通讯作者: Storer, Caroline G

Sexual selection does not drive hindwing tail elaboration in a moon moth, Actias luna

• DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arad019
• 发表时间: 2023-04-06
• 期刊: BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY
• 影响因子: 2.4
• 作者: Rubin，Juliette J.;Kawahara，Akito Y.
• 通讯作者: Kawahara，Akito Y.