Hawkmoth Brains Slow Down in Order to See at Night
Scientists already knew that the moths, which feed on flower nectar during the evening and at dusk and dawn, use specialized eye structures to maximize the amount of light they can capture. But they also surmised that the insects might be slowing their nervous systems to make the best use of this limited light. But if they were slowing their brains to see better, wouldn’t that hurt their ability to hover and track the motion of flowers?
Sponberg and colleagues at the University of Washington studied this question by using high-speed infrared cameras and nectar-dispensing robotic flowers that could be moved from side-to-side at different rates. While varying both the light conditions and the frequency at which the flowers moved, the researchers studied how well free-flying moths kept their mouths — known as proboscises — in the flowers.
They also measured real flowers blowing in the wind to determine the range of motion the insects had to contend with in the wild.
