Background Acoustic signals are used by many animals to transmit information. Variation in the acoustic characteristics of these signals often covaries with morphology and can relay information about an individual's fitness, sex, species, and/or other characteristics important for both mating and defense. Tiger moths (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae) use modified cuticular plates called "tymbal organs" to produce ultrasonic clicks which can aposematically signal their toxicity, mimic the signals of other species, or, in some cases, disrupt bat echolocation. The morphology of the tymbal organs and the sounds they produce vary greatly between species, but it is unclear how the variation in morphology gives rise to the variation in acoustic characteristics. This is the first study to determine how the morphological features of tymbals can predict the acoustic characteristics of the signals they produce. Results We show that the number of striations on the tymbal surface (historically known as "microtymbals") and, to a lesser extent, the ratio of the projected surface area of the tymbal to that of the thorax have a strong, positive correlation with the number of clicks a moth produces per unit time. We also found that some clades have significantly different regression coefficients, and thus the relationship between microtymbals and click rate is also dependent on the shared ancestry of different species. Conclusions Our predictive model allows the click rates of moths to be estimated using preserved material (e.g., from museums) in cases where live specimens are unavailable. This has the potential to greatly accelerate our understanding of the distribution of sound production and acoustic anti-bat strategies employed by tiger moths. Such knowledge will generate new insights into the evolutionary history of tiger moth anti-predator defenses on a global scale.

中文翻译：

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虎蛾（Erebidae：Arctiinae）抗蝙蝠声音的特征可以从鼓膜形态预测。

背景 许多动物使用声学信号来传递信息。这些信号的声学特征的变化通常与形态共变，并且可以传递有关个体健康、性别、物种和/或其他对交配和防御都很重要的特征的信息。虎蛾（鳞翅目：Erebidae：Arctiinae）使用被称为“鼓膜器官”的改良表皮板来产生超声波咔嗒声，这些声音可以发出毒性信号，模仿其他物种的信号，或者在某些情况下破坏蝙蝠的回声定位。鼓膜器官的形态及其产生的声音在物种之间差异很大，但尚不清楚形态的变化如何导致声学特征的变化。这是第一项确定鼓膜的形态特征如何预测它们产生的信号的声学特征的研究。结果 我们表明，鼓膜表面的条纹数量（历史上称为“微鼓膜”）以及在较小程度上，鼓膜投影表面积与胸部投影表面积之比与飞蛾每单位时间产生的点击次数。我们还发现一些进化枝具有显着不同的回归系数，因此 microtymbals 和点击率之间的关系也取决于不同物种的共同祖先。结论 我们的预测模型允许在没有活体标本的情况下使用保存材料（例如，来自博物馆）来估计飞蛾的点击率。这有可能大大加快我们对虎蛾所采用的声音产生分布和声学反蝙蝠策略的理解。这些知识将对全球范围内虎蛾反捕食者防御的进化历史产生新的见解。