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First published online February 4, 2005
Journal of Experimental Biology 208, 595-601 (2005)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2005
doi: 10.1242/jeb.01400

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Her odours make him deaf: crossmodal modulation of olfaction and hearing in a male moth

Niels Skals^1,*, Peter Anderson², Morten Kanneworff³, Christer Löfstedt¹ and Annemarie Surlykke³

¹ Department of Ecology, Lund University, SE-223 62 Lund, Sweden,
² Department of Crop Science, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE-230 53, Alnarp, Sweden
³ Center for Sound Communication, Institute of Biology, University of Southern Denmark, DK-5230 Odense M, Denmark

^* Author for correspondence at present address: Center for Sound Communication, Institute of Biology, University of Southern Denmark, DK-5230 Odense M, Denmark (e-mail: niels.skals{at}biology.sdu.dk)

Accepted 22 November 2004

All animals have to cope with sensory conflicts arising from simultaneous input of incongruent data to different sensory modalities. Nocturnal activity in moths includes mate-finding behaviour by odour detection and bat predator avoidance by acoustic detection. We studied male moths that were simultaneously exposed to female sex pheromones indicating the presence of a potential mate, and artificial bat cries simulating a predation risk. We show that stimulation of one sensory modality can modulate the response to information from another, suggesting that behavioural thresholds are dynamic and depend on the behavioural context. The tendency to respond to bat sounds decreased as the quality and/or the amount of sex pheromone increased. The behavioural threshold for artificial bat cries increased by up to 40 dB when male moths where simultaneously exposed to female sex pheromones. As a consequence, a male moth that has detected the pheromone plume from a female will not try to evade an approaching bat until the bat gets close, hence incurring increased predation risk. Our results suggest that male moths' reaction to sensory conflicts is a trade-off depending on the relative intensity of the input to CNS from the two sensory modalities.

Key words: hearing in moth, moth olfaction, trade-off, sensory conflict, predation risk, crossmodal integration

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