Prey transmit sensory illusions to redirect predatory strikes, creating a discrepancy between what a predator perceives and reality. We use the acoustic arms race between bats and moths to investigate the evolution and function of a sensory illusion. The spinning hindwing tails of silk moths (Saturniidae) divert bat attack by reflecting sonar to create a misleading echoic target. We characterized geometric morphometrics of moth hindwings across silk moths, mapped these traits onto a new, robust phylogeny, and found that elaborated hindwing structures have converged on four adaptive shape peaks. To test the mechanism underlying these anti-bat traits, we pit bats against three species of silk moths with experimentally altered hindwings that created a representative gradient of ancestral and extant hindwing shapes. High-speed videography of battles reveals that moths with longer hindwings and tails more successfully divert bat attack. We postulate that sensory illusions are widespread and are underappreciated drivers of diversity across systems.

中文翻译：

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飞蛾抗蝙蝠感觉错觉的演变。

猎物通过传递感觉错觉来重定向掠夺性攻击，从而在掠食者的感知与现实之间产生差异。我们使用蝙蝠和飞蛾之间的声学​​军备竞赛来研究感觉错觉的演变和功能。蚕蛾的后尾旋转，通过反射声纳转移蝙蝠的攻击，从而产生误导性的回声目标。我们表征了蚕蛾后蛾的几何形态学特征，将这些特征映射到一个新的，稳健的系统发育系统上，并发现精心设计的后翅结构已经收敛在四个适应性形状峰上。为了测试这些反蝙蝠特征的潜在机制，我们将蝙蝠与三种具有实验性改变后翅的蚕蛾进行了对比，这些后翅产生了祖先和现存的后翅形状的代表性梯度。战斗的高速录像显示，后翅更长的飞蛾和尾巴可以更有效地转移蝙蝠的攻击力。我们假设感觉错觉是普遍存在的，并且是整个系统中多样性被忽视的驱动力。