Cognitive ecology of predatory bats and sound-producing prey

我的研究计划的长期目标是更好地理解动物——脊椎动物和无脊椎动物——如何利用感官信息来构建有用的内部表征，以反映它们经常变化的外部环境。在这项为期5年的研究资助中，我们将使用掠食性蝙蝠来调查，如果是的话，蝙蝠是如何利用主要的听觉信息来实时和未来决定吃什么昆虫和避免什么昆虫的。首先，我们将调查当地虎蛾群落的化学防御，跨物种和物种内。虎蛾通常有明显的颜色和/或发出阻止蝙蝠的声音，这些信号分别警告鸟类和蝙蝠，它们可能是有害的。然而，自然界中单个飞蛾的化学防御和适口性很少被研究。通过识别化学防御物种到那些完全美味的物种，我们将尝试根据翅膀的图案和颜色识别潜在的模仿复合物。同样，我们将在开阔空间反射蝙蝠的声压级下播放所有本地蝙蝠（其中8,3种是迁徙蝙蝠）的回声定位攻击序列，并记录所有虎蛾的声音反应。然后，我们将比较不同物种产生的虎蛾的咔哒声和咔哒声调制周期，再次确定潜在的模仿环，这一次是关于防御性声学信号的设计和部署。有了这些结果，我们然后用蝙蝠（圈养出生的，野生捕获的，少年和成年的）和虎蛾在大型室外飞行室测试这些潜在的视觉和声学模仿。我们还将进行更简单的实验，以记录虎蛾在鸟类、陆生哺乳动物和其他昆虫中的适口性。用纸质模型进行实地测试，以记录哪些虎蛾物种会受到鸟类的攻击。南安大略是一个可管理的虎蛾群落（约30种常见物种）的家园，我们之前已经建立了一个分子系统发育和一个小的狐蝠群落，使其成为考虑捕食者学习，记忆和捕食者-猎物相互作用的进化生态学的可行系统。考虑到这一点，我们还将进行飞行室实验，看看当地的食虫蝙蝠是否能通过倾听模拟的鸣叫声来了解对它们来说是美味的、能发出声音的新猎物（例如，一种引入的蝈蝈物种），然后被另一只蝙蝠攻击和吃掉。我们还将测试蝙蝠是否能通过倾听其他蝙蝠来学习老虎蛾应该避开哪些东西，就像某些食虫鸟类一样。最后，我们将测试当蝙蝠和已经在收集食物的蝙蝠在一起时，它们是否能更快地学会从表面上捕捉猎物（即收集食物），并彻底调查一些当地蝙蝠物种在森林周围的路灯处捕捉飞蛾（包括虎蛾）时的非凡行为。

The long-term objective of my research program is to better understand how animals - vertebrates and invertebrates alike - use sensory information to construct useful internal representations of their often changing external environments. Over the course of this 5-year research grant, we will use predatory bats to investigate if and, if so, how bats use primarily auditory information for real-time and future decision-making about what insects to eat and what insects to avoid. First, we will investigate the chemical defences of the local community of tiger moths, across and within species. Tiger moths are often conspicuously coloured and/or produce bat-deterring sounds, these signals warn birds and bats, respectively, that they may be noxious. However, the chemical defences and palatability of individual moths in nature is rarely investigated. By identifying chemically defended species through to those that are entirely palatable, we will then try to identify potential mimicry complexes based on wing pattern and colouration. Similarly, we will play back echolocation attack sequences from all local bat species (8, 3 of which are migratory) at sound pressure levels reflective of bats in open space to all tiger moth species and record the moths' acoustic responses. We will then compare tiger moths' clicks and clicks modulation cycles as produced by different species to, again, identify potential mimicry rings, this time with respect to defensive acoustic signal design and deployment. With these results in hand, we then test these potential visual and acoustic mimicry using bats (captive born, and wild caught, juveniles and adults) and tiger moths in large outdoor flight rooms. We will also conduct simpler experiments to document tiger moth species' palatability in birds, terrestrial mammals, and other insects. And conduct field tests with paper models to document which tiger moth species are attacked by birds. Southern Ontario is home to a manageable community of tiger moths (~30 common species) for which we have previously built a molecular phylogeny and a small community of vespertilionid bats, making this a feasible system to consider the evolutionary ecology of predator learning, memory, and predator-prey interaction. With that in mind, we will also conduct flight room experiments to see if local gleaning bats can learn about palatable, sound producing prey new to them (e.g., an introduced katydid species) by listening to its simulated stridulations and then be attacked and consumed by another bat. We will also test if bats can learn from listening to other bats which tiger moths to avoid, as appears possible in some insect-eating birds. Last, we will test whether bats can learn to take prey from surfaces (i.e. glean) more quickly when they keep the company of bats that already glean, and thoroughly investigate the extraordinary behaviour of some local bat species when hunting moths, including tiger moths, at streetlights surrounded by forest.