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Woolly Bear Biology: Part 1

Wow, you folks were fast to break 100 records.

As promised, here is a short discussion of sound production in the woolly bear, Pyrrharctia isabella.

Plenty of tiger moths (Erebidae: Arctiinae) produce sound in various contexts. And with >11,000 species of tiger moths world-wide, that's potentially a lot of sound being made in the skies at night! These sounds resemble clicks, because they are produced in discrete "packets" of sound which are quickly damped (more on this in a future journal entry). The most common contexts in which these moths produce sound are in response to physical restraint or bat echolocation. How do we know this? That too will be future journal entry.

As we currently understand it, there are 3 major reasons tiger moths produce sound. The first is to warn predators that they are chemically defended (also the subject of a future journal entry); we call this "acoustic aposematism" in the biz. The second reason is to mimic the warning ...more ↓

Posted on April 19, 2018 01:36 PM by njdowdy njdowdy | 0 comments | Leave a comment
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Tiger moths (Erebidae: Arctiinae) are a diverse group of Lepidoptera which are known to sequester host plant toxins and produce ultrasonic signals in response to bat echolocation as well as during courtship. These traits are known to vary between species, but we lack knowledge about how traits like these vary within a species.

Our research team is interested in studying the variation ...more ↓

njdowdy created this project on January 11, 2018
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