Nanoscience cloaks moths

Abstract

The cabbage tree emperor moth (Bunaea alcinoe) would be an ideal meal for bats. The palm-sized insect is large, nontoxic, and deaf, so it cannot hear an approaching predator. But the moth is not without its defenses. Scientists suspected the critter used some kind of acoustic camouflage. Now they have learned the moths hide from their hunters’ echolocation thanks to nanostructured scales on their wings. The discovery could guide the creation of ultrathin sound-absorbing materials (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2018, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1810025115). It’s the same approach stealth airplanes use against radar, explains Marc W. Holderied, a University of Bristol biologist who led the research effort with colleague Zhiyuan Shen. “You absorb some of the energy that hits you rather than reflecting it and thereby you look smaller than you actually are,” which makes the moth more difficult to detect, Holderied says. The Bristol researchers examined a single scale from