Disrupting Foraging Bats: The Clicks of Arctiid Moths

Abstract

Dunning and Roeder (1965). demonstrated how the clicks of some arctiid moths interfered with the ability of flying Myotis lucifugus to catch mealworms thrown into the air. Dunning (1968) subsequently demonstrated that some M. lucifugus learned to use the clicks of bad tasting arctiids to distinguish them from those of arctiids that lacked chemical protection. Surlykke and Miller (1985) found that Pipistrellus pipistrellus also learned to associate arctiid clicks with bad taste. Three hypotheses have been proposed to explain the responses of the bats to the moth clicks: 1. the moth clicks are aposematic signals (Dunning 1968; Surlykke and Miller 1985); 2. the moth clicks are startle displays (Humphries and Driver 1970); and 3. the moth clicks jam the bats’ echolocation (Fullard, Fenton and Simmons 1979).