Cognitive ecology of predatory bats and sound-producing prey

我的研究计划的长期目标是更好地了解动物-脊椎动物和无脊椎动物一样-如何使用感官信息来构建有用的内部表征其经常变化的外部环境。在这个为期5年的研究资助的过程中，我们将使用捕食性蝙蝠来调查蝙蝠是否以及如何使用主要的听觉信息来实时和未来决策吃什么昆虫和避免什么昆虫。首先，我们将调查当地社区的虎蛾，跨物种和物种内的化学防御。虎蛾通常有明显的颜色和/或产生蝙蝠威慑的声音，这些信号分别警告鸟类和蝙蝠，它们可能是有毒的。然而，在自然界中的个体蛾的化学防御和适口性的研究很少。通过识别化学防御的物种，直到那些完全可口的物种，我们将尝试根据翅膀图案和颜色来识别潜在的拟态复合物。同样，我们将播放回声定位攻击序列从所有当地的蝙蝠物种（8，其中3个是迁徙）在声压级反映蝙蝠在开放空间的所有虎蛾物种和记录蛾的声学响应。然后，我们将比较虎蛾的点击和点击调制周期所产生的不同物种，再次，确定潜在的模仿环，这一次相对于防御性的声学信号的设计和部署。有了这些结果在手，我们然后测试这些潜在的视觉和听觉模仿蝙蝠（圈养出生，野生捕获，青少年和成年人）和虎蛾在大型室外飞行室。我们还将进行更简单的实验，以记录虎蛾物种在鸟类，陆生哺乳动物和其他昆虫中的适口性。并利用纸模型进行实地测试，以记录哪些虎蛾物种受到鸟类的攻击。南安大略是一个可管理的社区虎蛾（~30种常见的物种），我们以前已经建立了一个分子生物学和一个小社区的蝙蝠，使这成为一个可行的系统，考虑捕食者的学习，记忆和捕食者-猎物相互作用的进化生态学。考虑到这一点，我们还将进行飞行室实验，看看当地的拾穗蝙蝠是否可以了解可口的，声音产生的猎物新的给他们（例如，一种引入的Katydid物种）通过听它的模拟声音，然后被另一只蝙蝠攻击和消耗。我们还将测试蝙蝠是否能从其他蝙蝠的声音中学习如何避开虎蛾，就像一些以昆虫为食的鸟类一样。 最后，我们将测试蝙蝠是否能更快地学会从表面捕获猎物（即收集），当它们与已经收集的蝙蝠保持公司时，并彻底调查一些当地蝙蝠物种在森林周围的路灯下狩猎飞蛾（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.