How does the tiger tiger deter predators?

If you eat a sausage at a fast food store, you will definitely remember that experience whenever you see the brand of that sausage. Tiger butterflies also apply similar psychological rules to drive away predators.

For some birds and bats, virgin tiger butterflies (Grammia virgo) are toxic food. In the process of evolution, nature gave this butterfly bright colors on the wings and a crackle to signal to enemies that stay away.

A Cornell University study demonstrated that signals that affect at least two senses (called multi-sensory signals) have evolved independently as a reaction to predators. Specifically, bright colors on the body are a warning signal to some birds during the day, while the crackling is to "quench" the bats (which have poor eyesight) at night.

"We are interested in the evolution of these signals. Most researchers focus on a warning signal and a sensory organ, but we investigate two signals and two sensory organs. ", John Ratcliffe, an expert in evolutionary biology, said.

A virgin tiger butterfly.Photo: bugguide.net.

Biologists set out two major hypotheses about the evolutionary way of multi-sensory signals. The first hypothesis assumes that two signals are against an enemy type. Meanwhile, according to the second hypothesis, they were born to deal with many predators and each signal has its own warning significance.

John Ratcliffe and colleagues classified 26 species of virgin tiger butterflies in a location in Ontario, Canada - inhabited by both birds and bats. Butterflies are classified according to four criteria: the day they appear, active mainly at night or day, color and ultrasonic noise.

The main activity time of butterflies plays the most important role, because bats fly to search for the highest frequency from early July to mid-August. Meanwhile, birds feed all year round.

Experts found that tiger butterflies are white and light in color on their bodies, wings tend to work during the day. In the spring, when most bats are still hibernating, butterflies do not make rattles. But in the summer, when bats are everywhere, the rattle appears whenever the butterfly flies. Night butterflies mingle with the surrounding environment thanks to dark colors.