A revolutionary discovery for the agricultural sector: when plants speak, insects listen
17 July 2025 15:16
Scientists from Israel have received convincing evidence that plants and insects interact through sound signals. This was stated by researchers at Tel Aviv University, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports with reference to Reuters.
What the scientists found
The research was conducted by scientists Raya Seltzer and Guy Zer Eshel in the laboratories of Professors Yossi Yovel and Lilah Hadani from the Faculty of Life Sciences at Weiss University.
The results of the study, published in the journal eLife, show that female moths are able to pick up ultrasonic distress signals emitted by dehydrated tomatoes and use this information to choose where to lay their eggs.
Typically, moths lay their eggs on tomatoes to provide food for the larvae after they hatch. However, as it turned out, the insects avoid weakened plants. And they do this precisely by picking up sounds.
“We have found the first evidence of an acoustic interaction between a plant and an insect,”
– the research team said in an official statement.
The new findings build on previous research by the same group, which previously proved that plants emit ultrasonic signals under stress.
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Experimental methodology
To test their hypotheses, the researchers conducted an experiment with female moths. The insects were offered two healthy tomatoes – one with a speaker that played the sounds of a drying plant, and the other without sound.
The moths preferred the “silent” option, which confirms their ability to use acoustic cues to select optimal egg-laying sites.
Further experiments confirmed that the insects’ choice was guided by sound signals and only by plant sounds.
“We saw that there are animals that can understand these sounds. We believe that this is just the beginning. Many animals can respond to different plants,”
– said Prof. Hadani.
The practical significance of the discovery
The discovery by Israeli scientists opens up new perspectives for understanding complex ecosystem connections and could revolutionize approaches to agricultural production.
The results of the study could have important implications for agriculture and pest control, opening up the possibility of managing crop health and insect behavior using sound signals.
Although ultrasonic signals from plants are beyond the range of human hearing, they can be perceived by many insects and some mammals, including bats.
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