Scientists staged dogfights between moths and bats — and experimentally altered the moths’ wings — to recreate evolution and shed light on the sonic illusions moths spin to evade bats.

For more than 60 million years, bats and moths have engaged in an evolutionary arms race across the night sky. Bats hunt their insect prey using ultrasonic sonar, while the insects counter these predators with numerous elaborate strategies, including aerial acrobatics, sonar jamming and sonic decoys.

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