Moths decide where to lay eggs based on the “crying” of dehydrated plants

To the female moths take into account ultrasonic clicks emitted by plants when deciding where will they lay their eggs . This was the conclusion reached by a study conducted by Tel Aviv University, in Israel.

The research published on November 14th in bioRxiv tested different scenarios to try to understand whether sound was really a determining factor in moth oviposition.

The conclusion reached by Rya Seltzer, entomologist and author of the study, was that moths not only hear the clicks emitted by plants, but also prefer to lay their eggs where there are no clicks — which is an indication that the plants are dehydrated. During the analyses, the moths explored the entire terrain and, over time, became more concentrated where the plants were dehydrated.

The hypothesis was confirmed when, when analyzing deaf moths, the preference was lost, proving that the sound emitted was a crucial factor. The research also tested the interference of sounds emitted by male moths, but they were not able to influence the behavior of egg-laying females.

This was the first discovery of acoustic interaction between insects and plants and the researchers believe that, based on all this, it may be possible to identify other situations in which the sound emitted influences relationships between species.

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This content was originally published in Moths decide where to lay eggs based on the “crying” of dehydrated plants on the CNN Brasil website.

Source: CNN Brasil

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