Whereas, bats didn't care about swats!

(Oddly, they didn't care about call ornamentation either, just call rate... more discussion in the paper about this unexpected finding!)

We presented choice tests to females and predatory bats with variation in the degree of call elaboration (call rate + call ripples, and call complexity) and swat ripples.

In general, females are less likely to choose a male the more he defends himself from frog-biting midge attacks.

Male túngara frogs compete for access to females by elaborating their calls.

But!

Many enemies eavesdrop on these calls. Here, frog-biting midges find blood 🩸 meals by localizing calls with their antennae (see work by @xebernal.bsky.social‬!). Males swat at these midges, creating water ripples.