Acoustic guide in bat-pollinated flower

Several hundred species of neotropical plants are pollinated by glossophagine bats,. These bats use their highly developed sonar system for orientation, so we might expect bat-pollinated flowers to have evolved acoustically conspicuous structures to make them easier to detect. We find that the bat-p...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 1999-04, Vol.398 (6730), p.759-760
Main Authors: von Helversen, Dagmar, von Helversen, Otto
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustics
Bats
Cotton
Energy
Flowers
Humanities and Social Sciences
multidisciplinary
Plant nectar
Pollinators
Rainforests
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
scientific-correspondence
Wool
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Several hundred species of neotropical plants are pollinated by glossophagine bats,. These bats use their highly developed sonar system for orientation, so we might expect bat-pollinated flowers to have evolved acoustically conspicuous structures to make them easier to detect. We find that the bat-pollinated neotropical vine Mucuna holtonii directs its echolocating pollinators to its flowers by means of an acoustic nectar guide. The flower contains a small concave 'mirror' that works like an optical cat's eye, but in the acoustic domain, reflecting most of the energy of the bats' echolocation calls back into the direction of incidence.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/19648