Some evolutionary innovations are so useful that nature keeps making them. There is the crab; Everyone knows that nature continues to produce crabs. There is the ability to fly, either through feathers, membranes or chitin. And, of course, there’s the indispensable trick of using your genitals to alter the sonar of hunting bats. No, your eyes are not deceiving you. Some moths have evolved the ability to make noise at bats using their genital structures. And apparently it’s so useful that this ability has emerged, separately, again and again in different species of hawkmoths. According to new research, these moths have evolved the ability to yell at bats using their genitals independently up to seven times over 30 million years, and at least three distinct anatomical mechanisms have emerged, producing different types of potentially sonar-inhibiting ultrasound. “Collectively,” the team writes in a study led by entomologist Paul Masonick of the Florida Museum of Natural History, “our findings deepen our understanding of defensive bioacoustic adaptations in this iconic predator-prey system.” A bat chasing a flying moth. (Michael Durham/Minden Pictures, Bat Conservation International) The relationship between predator and prey is one of nature’s most powerful drivers of evolution. The constant threat of death from a particular source (a predator lurking for snacks) creates pressure to find ways to avoid ending up on the menu. We see it again and again: an evolutionary arms race in which predators and prey continually develop new ways to outwit each other, driving adaptations like camouflage, toxicity, spikes, armor, and ways to appear much larger and tougher than they might actually be. That predators use to locate flying prey in the dark has the potential to be a powerful survival strategy, but moths do not have a larynx. So they have to be a little more creative. The trick is a process called stridulation: producing sound by rubbing two body parts together, like the chirping of crickets as they rub their wings together or the hiss of spiders as they rub their legs together. In male hawkmoths, the instruments are specialized scales on a pair of genital structures called valves. By moving these structures against modified surfaces of their abdomen, moths can produce bursts of ultrasound. And, as the researchers discovered, there is more than one way to produce genital music. The three different mechanisms for producing sound. And now you’re on some kind of list. (Masonick et al., Proc. R. Soc. B: Biol. Sci., 2026) In fact, there are at least three. Masonick and his colleagues examined the genital structures of male hawkmoths from across the family, using detailed images to identify the surfaces responsible for producing their ultrasonic calls. In some species, specialized scales on the genital structures scrape against other scales on the abdomen. In others, they rub against small thorns. And in a third group, the scales scratch small bumps called nodules. Each mechanism produces its own distinctive ultrasonic sounds (a small band of percussion that is beyond the range of human hearing), but when slowed down to bring them into the audible range, they resemble a series of clicks, hums, or rapid trills. The scale-on-scale mechanism tends to produce shorter, more intermittent bursts of ultrasound, while moths with scales on the spine produce longer, more sustained bursts. Meanwhile, scale-on-nodule moths appear to have the most varied repertoire, producing sounds that differ considerably even between closely related species. frameborder=”0″ enable=”accelerometer; autoplay; writing on clipboard; encrypted media; gyroscope; picture in picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” enablefullscreen> And surprisingly, these three distinct mechanisms for screaming from the gonads were not all inherited from a single acoustically gifted ancestor. When researchers mapped sound-producing structures and behaviors in the hawkmoth family tree, they found that the ability to sing an ultrasonic genital song in response to bat hunting appears to have repeatedly evolved independently, as many About seven times in the last 30 million years. Which begs the question: If nature kept reinventing the screaming chick, how useful is it? Surprisingly, the answer is: not consistently, at least, maybe not in the way you would expect. The researchers analyzed recordings of the moths’ ultrasonic performances, measuring how long each burst lasted, their frequency, and how long the moths spent making noise. interfere with bats’ echolocation. And not all of the moths’ strange songs were up to the task. The hawkmoth family tree, which shows how the ability to produce ultrasonic sounds using genital structures evolved independently several times (Masonick et al., Proc. R. Soc. B: Biol. Sci., 2026). However, others are deaf and cannot respond to approaching predators in the same way. touch. as it approaches to kill, potentially giving the moth a chance to escape. Well, and it would, wouldn’t it? Imagine that it goes for a tasty snack and its genitals start screaming at you. Another possibility is acoustic mimicry. The variety of sounds produced by the mechanism. scale over nodule raises the possibility that sounds may also help moths recognize members of their own species during courtship. This remains to be tested, but nature is very good at finding new uses for old tricks. So there you have it: if you can’t help but become dinner, maybe you can at least have a little romance before you go. We take pride in our process, we are human. If you spot an error, please let us know.
