Moths Fool Bats

2 Corinthians 11:14
“And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.”

When one thinks of clever creatures, moths are probably not the first creature that come to mind – in fact, they probably don’t come to mind at all!

Researchers at Wake Forest University raised some bats from infanthood in large cages. Their purpose was to carefully control the growing bats’ diets and study their responses to various prey. Among the prey offered were Tiger moths. In the caterpillar stage they eat plants which make them unpalatable even as moths. As moths, when a bat is near, they emit a series of clicks. A bat will try to eat the moths only once, spitting out the foul-tasting insect almost immediately after biting it. When the bats were offered a different but equally foul-tasting species of Tiger moth, a few of the bats tried the new species despite their “don’t eat me” clicking sounds. They quickly learned to avoid the new species as well.

Researchers also offered the bats tasty Milkweed Tussock moths. While tasty, these moths click like the tiger moths when approached by a bat. Three of ten bats tried these moths, but the other seven wouldn’t touch them. These tasty moths managed to fool most of the bats into thinking that they were the unpalatable Tiger moths.

Good doesn’t usually mimic evil, but Scripture warns us that evil will mimic good.

Prayer:
Father, thank You for Your Word which teaches me the truth of salvation and warns me against evil mimicking good. Amen.

Notes:
Science News, 6/23/07, p. 397. S.M., “Moths mimic ‘Don’t eat me’ sounds.” Photo: Tiger moth. Courtesy of Bruce Marlin. (CC BY-SA 3.0)