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- cross-posted to:
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13276962
Carnivorous plants attract bats with echo reflectors
An international team of researchers from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), the University of Greifswald, and Universiti Brunei Drussalam has discovered that Nepenthes hemsleyana – a pitcher plant found in Borneo – uses an echo reflector to attract bats. However, it is not the bats themselves that the plants are after, but their droppings. As the pitcher plants grow in soil that is low in nutrients they need additional fertiliser and the bats’ droppings provide them with vital nutrients. In return, the plants offer the bats the perfect place to sleep inside their pitchers.
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Fascinating! When I saw the post title I thought it was something I’d already heard of, but it turns out that this is a completely different instance of a plant evolving echolocation-useful properties. 1 It’s so cool that this has evolved separately.
Another interesting related tidbit is that there is some moth out there that bats like to eat, and the moth has a bat radar jamming ability. It sends sounds out all the time to disguise the exact location. 2
