Ultrasonic Hearing in Moths
James Windmill, a bioacoustician at the University of Strathclyde, found that the greater wax moth has the ability to hear the highest known sound. It can hear up to 300 kHz. That is outstanding compared to humans who can hear 20 kHz. Thats 15 times the amount of a human, its incredible! Their ears are only .02 inches big, but they can hear almost every sound possible.
This is great for the moths themselves because it makes it easier for them to hear their predators. The main predator of the moth is the bad. Bats use echolocation to find their prey. The echolocation calls of bats can get up to 212 kHz which is well within the range of the greater wax moth. Because of this, the greater wax moth is able to hear its predators coming. This amazing hearing ability also helps with hearing mating calls of the male moths. "Though male mating calls are at a lower pitch (about 80 kHz), they are incredibly short pulses. Being tuned to a higher frequency range could allow the females to differentiate the individual pulses, Windmill said."
Link: http://www.livescience.com/29416-moth-with-ultrasonic-hearing-discovered.html
NOS Themes:
- Role of motivation and curiosity- Whomever decided to look into the greater wax moth had to have found this amazing data.
- Science is testable- scientists were able to test their hearing.
- Science is based on evidence- scientists were able to make conclusions from their findings.
I found some more interesting information at this website:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nature.com/news/moth-smashes-ultrasound-hearing-records-1.12941
These moths only have 4 receptor cells in each eardrum! Most scientists don't think to test at frequencies that high or they don't have the equipment. These findings could open the possibility of testing other insects hearing. This shows that another NOS theme could be Science is tentative if new information is found.
This is interesting because I never thought of moths as being able to hear so well. On this website it says that owls have the best hearing;
ReplyDeletehttp://largestfastestsmartest.co.uk/animals-with-the-best-sense-of-hearing-in-the-world/
But it sounds like moths hear pretty darn well too! Sense of hearing may be a subjective measurement too, so that might account for the differences in there.
This is an interesting article. It also reminds me of how praying mantises also use a similar technique to avoid predators. Branching off of the topic of ultrasound, these praying mantises are able to detect the perfect moment to dive when hearing the ultrasonic pulses emitted by bats.
ReplyDeletehttp://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/11/1119_021119_TVbats_2.html
Adrianna Tan (hour 3)
I found your post to be very interesting, so i was looking for a reason why moths have such great hearing. I got to this article: http://www.news24.com/MyNews24/Insects-cant-smell-20130429
ReplyDeleteand found out that insects can't smell! Maybe something with the lack of one sense causes the other to work at extreme rates.