VERIFIED FACT

Female moths can use ultrasonic plant clicks when choosing where to lay eggs.

Why this sounds fake

Plant sounds feel irrelevant to animal decisions, especially when humans cannot hear those sounds at all.

Egg-laying sounds like a decision guided by smell, leaf chemistry, and plant shape, not sound from the plant itself. In eLife research, female moths responded to ultrasonic clicks associated with dehydrated tomato plants when making oviposition choices. The wording needs care: this is not evidence that plants talk on purpose or that moths understand plant suffering. It is still a strong plant-animal surprise. A moth can use sounds humans cannot hear as a cue about whether a plant may be a good nursery for its future caterpillars.

The Surprise

The key move is sensory: the plant does not talk to us, but another animal can still use the signal.

Mechanism diagram showing ultrasonic plant clicks traveling toward a moth choosing where to lay eggs.
Plant clicks sit outside human hearing, but they can still become information for a moth.

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