Investigating Manduca Sexta Caterpillars' Hearing Ability by Testing Range of Sound Values with Different Frequencies and Amplitudes

Authors: Suyeon Jang, Aishwarya Sriram, Sophia Mah, Jessica Salzano, Vincent Lam

Field of Study: Biological Sciences

Program Affiliation: Undergraduate Research Award

Faculty Mentors: Carol Miles

Easel: 57

Timeslot: Morning

Abstract: Insects of many orders have shown evidence of hearing capabilities. Over the years, research on Insecta has revealed evidence and the frequencies of dynamic hearing in the insect world. Lepidopteran larvae have been model organisms to study insect hearing. Some behavioral reactions elicited by caterpillars are jump startles, twitch and freeze responses amongst others to sound. In this research, M.sexta caterpillars have been used as test subjects to study such behavioral responses to sound. The research used wide range of sound with different sound intensity and frequency as stimuli for the test subjects. It is hypothesized that the caterpillar has developed such hearing ability for anti-predator escape behavior and the perceived sound's values correspond to the sound made by caterpillar's predators. The range of possible perceived loudness of the caterpillars was determined based on the experiment.