Page 83 - Engineering in Nature

Harun Yahya

Ears underneath the wings of
these moths' (from the families
Noctuidae, Geometridae and
Arctiidae) are of vital importance
to the moth and work like a kind of
early warning system. Thanks to
them, the moth can identify the lo-
cation of a bat 100 meters away. It
can even tell whether the bat is fly-
ing past it or approaching, initiating an attack. The moth's ears have been created
in such a way as to be able to perceive the very high-frequency sound waves emit-
ted by bats.

known as the middle ear, is an air sac. Fine tissue containing the com-
ponents of the moth's hearing system extends along the length of the
air sac, from the middle of the ear membrane to the exoskeletal sup-
port. At this point are two hearing cells known as A cells. Attached to
them is a third cell, known as the B cell, with no direct connection to
sounds.
Every A cell extends a single nerve fiber outside to the ear mem-
brane, and inside to the exoskeletal support. All the information re-

garding high-frequency sounds the moth detects is transmitted to the
central nervous system along these two A fibers. Both A fibers, known
as A1 and A2 pass very close to the large B cell. The B cell also has a

Adnan Oktar
81