Most insects rely on the visual, chemical, tactile, and electrical cues given by plants to determine whether they are safe and healthy. One such cue is ultrasonic sounds. Researchers mentioned in the study that plants emit these ultrasonic signals when triggered by some physiological processes such as cavitation, dehydration, or cutting. Meanwhile, insects have tiny sensors embedded on their bodies that help them detect these signals, which are otherwise inaudible to human ears. These sensors in insects serve two main functions: attracting each other for mating by detecting sounds, and defending from predators.
Two years ago, researchers from Tel Aviv University (TAU) discovered that plants tend to scream when they are in distress, according to a study published in Cell. In the latest study, the same team of researchers experimented on female Egyptian cotton leafworm (Spodoptera littoralis) moths to reveal that they use these ultrasonic sounds to decide whether or not to lay their eggs on a certain plant. “In this study, we revealed the first evidence for acoustic interaction between a plant and an insect,” researchers said, according to the press release.
Female moths are known to lay their eggs on tomato plants. While they feed themselves on flower nectar, the larvae that hatch on the plants feed on the nutrients. So while they select a plant for laying eggs, they ensure that the plant is healthy and not dehydrated. “After proving in the previous study that plants produce sounds, we hypothesized that animals capable of hearing these high-frequency sounds may respond to them and make decisions accordingly,” study author Professor Yossi Yovel from TAU said in the press release. He and his team found that when plants emit distress signals or clicking sounds of dehydration, moths choose to fly away and select another plant for oviposition.
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