What defense have some moths evolved in response to predation by bats?
LAB 12
PART A
Activity 1: Predator Prey Coevolution
WATCH VIDEO & ANSWER QUESTIONS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeCmSL_N65A
What are some advantages to using sonar to find prey?
What defense have some moths evolved in response to predation by bats?
Of the nearly 140,000 moth species that exist, as many as half may be able to hear bat echolocation. When they hear the bat calls, some moths try to escape, while others produce ultrasounds in response. What are two ways in which ultrasound production can help moths avoid being eaten by bats?
What strategy did the moths in Gorongosa use to escape bats. What pieces of evidence from the video support this claim?
What does Dr. Barber mean when he says some of the moths are bluffing?
Explain how the team tested if the moths were bluffing or not.
According to the video how did these escape abilities originate in moths?
Toward the end of the film, this statement appears in the video: “Coevolution: bats and moths reciprocally affect each other’s evolution;” Explain, in your own words, how each organism affects the other’s evolution.
Activity 2: Predator Prey Simulation
For this exercise we are going to use a simulation to model a single population of prey species: deer mice. Like all populations, the individual members are not genetically identical. The process of mutations arising throughout the evolutionary history of this species has created new genes, and sexual reproduction has shuffled those genes into new combinations. Those genes that are beneficial will accumulate in the population, while those that are harmful will not. This process is essentially natural selection.
We’re going to focus only on the gene that expresses coat color. Our mouse population has two versions of this gene: RD and RL. Individuals that have the genotype RDRD will be dark brown in color. Those that are heterozygous RDRL are medium brown, and those that have the genotype RLRL will be light in color. We are going to investigate how predators and the physical environment in which the prey live influence which phenotypes are selected for (survive and reproduce) and which phenotypes are selected against (are eaten by hawks). The hawks are mainly visual predators, so we are assuming they are mainly picking mice based on their ability to see the mice.
GO TO LINK http://short.concord.org/lm3
Play around with the settings to see what everything does.
When you’re ready, hit “reset”
To run the first simulation:
Record the initial frequencies of each color of mice in the table below (this should remain the same throughout the simulation).
Click the button that says “add” and has a picture of a hawk to add predators to the simulation. When this is turned on you will see hawks appear.
Make sure the mutation setting is turned off (not checked).
The environment should be set to field. Make a predication about which color of mice will be best at surviving in this environment in your notebook.
Click “run” and let the simulation go for 5 years (60 months).
At the end of 60 months, record the final number of each mouse color in table 1 below under trial 1. In the tables below, L = light brown, M = medium, and D = dark brown.
Click reset
Repeat steps 1-7 for trials 2 and 3 for “field”
Then calculate the average number of each color
AVERAGE =
Calculate the average percent for each color
AVERAGE PERCENT =X 100
Repeat steps 1-9 with the “beach” environment (step 4).
