Ormia flies find their hosts for their young by listening for cricket calls. When they find their target, the flies deposit their eggs on or near the cricket. Larvae would hatch and burrow inside of the cricket, and it would eventually burst through and kill the host.
But what happens when you factor in noise in the environment? Researchers from California Polytechnic State University looked into how background sounds affect that fly’s eavesdropping capabilities.
The research was published in Royal Society Open Science, and used sticky fly traps near speakers broadcasting cricket calls across a gradient of noise. The results show that fewer parasitoid flies were caught near speakers in noisier locations. Because parasitoids end up killing their hosts, the results suggest that crickets may benefit from calling in noisy areas.
The study also found that both traffic noise and natural ocean noise inhibit fly orientation to sound, suggesting crickets could use sound as a parasite shield across different soundscapes. These results suggest that soundscapes may influence the evolution of tightly co-evolved host-parasitoid relationships.
(Image Credit: Jpaur/ Wikimedia Commons)