QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

First published online February 13, 2009
Journal of Experimental Biology 212, 693-703 (2009)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2009
doi: 10.1242/jeb.019380

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in JEB Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Ghose, K. Articles by Moss, C. F. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Ghose, K. Articles by Moss, C. F. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Behavioral responses of big brown bats to dives by praying mantises

Kaushik Ghose^1,*, Jeffrey D. Triblehorn^2,, Kari Bohn², David D. Yager² and Cynthia F. Moss¹

¹ Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program and Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
² Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA

^* Author for correspondence at present address: Harvard Medical School, Neurobiology, 220 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA (e-mail: kaushik_ghose{at}hms.harvard.edu)

Accepted 1 December 2008

Insectivorous echolocating bats face a formidable array of defenses employed by their airborne prey. One such insect defense is the ultrasound-triggered dive, which is a sudden, rapid drop in altitude, sometimes all the way to the ground. Although many previous studies have investigated the dynamics of such dives and their effect on insect survival rate, there has been little work on how bats may adapt to such an insect defense employed in the middle of pursuit. In this study we investigated how big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) adjust their pursuit strategy when flying praying mantises (Parasphendale agrionina) execute evasive, ultrasound-triggered dives. Although the mantis dive occasionally forced the bat to completely abort its chase (25% trials), in a number of cases (75% trials) the bat followed the mantis into the dive. In such cases the bat kept its sonar beam locked onto the target and maneuvered to maintain the same time efficient strategy it adopted during level flight pursuit, though it was ultimately defeated by the dive. This study suggests that although the mantis dive can be effective in evading the bat, it does not always deter the bat from continuing pursuit and, given enough altitude, the bat can potentially capture diving prey using the same flight strategy it employs to intercept prey in level flight.

Key words: bat, echolocation, evasion, insect, predator–prey

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

Related articles in JEB:

BATS TRACK DIVING MANTISES WITH PARALLEL NAVIGATION

Nora Schultz and Kathryn Knight
JEB 2009 212: ii. [Full Text]  

This article has been cited by other articles:

				N. Schultz and K. Knight BATS TRACK DIVING MANTISES WITH PARALLEL NAVIGATION J. Exp. Biol., March 1, 2009; 212(5): ii - ii. [Full Text] [PDF]