This finding has the potential to fundamentally change the fight against pests and affect the maintenance of crop health using sound.
The latest study by Israeli researchers at the University of Aviv, published in the ELIFE scientific journal, states that it has evidence that plants and insects can communicate. According to Reuters report, TASR reports this.
The study claims that females of night butterflies can recognize ultrasonic signals broadcast by dehydrated tomato plants and determine where they load their eggs. Moles usually choose tomatoes especially to have their larvae after hatching what to eat.
Discovered acoustic interaction
“We have revealed the first proof of acoustic interaction between plant and insects,” says the scientific team from the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Telaviv University, who has built research on its own findings from the past. They revealed that the plants under stress make ultrasonic sounds.
Finding can affect agriculture and combat pests by opening up new opportunities for maintaining crop health with sound. Although the sounds of plants cannot capture the human ear, according to scientists, it can recognize it many insects and some mammals, such as bats.
Attempts with female butterflies
Researchers in order to confirm their hypothesis exposed the female night butterflies to two healthy tomato plants, with one of them releasing sounds captured by the dying plant and the other stood in silence. The seas obviously preferred a sound -free plant in the experiment, making scientists believe that the plant insects can “communicate” in this way.
By repeated attempts, scientists have confirmed that the decisions of the mines were influenced only by the sound of dying plants. “We have seen that there are animals that are able to understand this sound. We think this is just the beginning. Many animals can respond to the sounds of other plants,” the research team adds.
