This photo montage shows the Cuban nectar feeding bat Monophyllus beside the vine that scientists discovers attracts bats by producing an "echo beacon" with a special leaf. That sonar-reflecting leaf stands upright above the ring of flowers. The cup-like structures that hold the nectar hang below. CREDIT: Courtesy of Ralph Mangelsdorff and Ralph Simon
Just as some flowers use bright colors to attract insect pollinators, other plants may use sound to lure in nectar-eating bats.
One rain-forest vine has a dish-shaped leaf located above a cluster of flowers that appears to help bats find them (and the plant's tasty nectar) by reflecting back the calls the flying mammals send out, new research indicates. [Video of the Discovery]
While there is other evidence that plants use bats' sonar systems to attract them, this is the first time scientists have shown that a plant can produce an "echo beacon" that cuts through sonic clutter of reflected echoes, and that this signal can cut a bat's search time for food in half, according to the researchers, led by Ralph Simon, a research fellow at the University of Ulm in Germany.
Read More: http://www.livescience.com/15279-bat-flower-echo-acoustics-sonar-leaf.html
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