- Caterpillars unlike most land-based animals can sense electric fields around them with small bristles called setae on their bodies a feat called electroreception, as per findings published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
- They studied four species of caterpillars: cinnabar moth, scarce vapourer moth, European peacock butterfly, and common wasp.
- Researchers have long known that aquatic and amphibious animals use electroreception to detect both predators and prey.
- Scientists have also found electroreception in arthropods like bumblebees, hoverflies, and spiders. Caterpillars, which are also arthropods.
- However, none of these land-based creatures use the ability to defend against predators.
- As an insect’s wings flap through the air, static charges build up on them. When it nears the caterpillar, the setae sense these charges by building up charges of its own.
- These animals have had a lot of evolutionary pressure upon them to evolve defences because so many animals like to eat them.
Dig Deeper: Read about anti-predator adaptation mechanisms like camouflage among various prays developed through evolution.
