Crickets evade bats via olfaction beyond acoustic cues.

Crickets detect bat body odors, specifically limonene, to avoid predation, revealing an olfactory defense mechanism beyond acoustic cues in a predator-prey system.

• Why it matters: Understanding how prey insects evade predators is crucial for comprehending ecological interactions and evolutionary adaptations, especially when sensory modalities beyond hearing are involved.
• What they did: The study used electrophysiological recordings, behavioral assays, and field experiments to show that the cricket Loxoblemmus equestris responds to bat odor components, notably limonene, which triggers avoidance behaviors.
• The result: This discovery demonstrates that insects can utilize olfactory cues to detect and evade distant vertebrate predators, expanding the known sensory strategies in predator-prey dynamics and highlighting olfactory eavesdropping as a key survival tactic.