Ear Mites, which deafen the ear in which they live, would endanger themselves by occupying both ears.
This is because the moths use their ears to listen for moth-eating bats and take appropriate evasive action when they hear the call that a bat makes when it uses echo-location to find its prey.
A moth that is deaf in one ear is hampered, but a moth that is deaf in both ears is helpless and is likely to be devoured, along with its mite passengers, by a hungry bat.
Since several mites may board the same moth at different times, mites that come along after the first mite to come on board must have some way of avoiding the unoccupied ear and finding their way to the one that is already occupied.
No one has demonstrated just how they accomplish this, but it is known that late arrivals follow the same, often circuitous, route that the first mite followed as it searched for an ear.
Thus, it is almost a certainty that the first mite to arrive marked its path with a chemical, a pheromone, that marks the trail for later arrivals.
Possibly Related Questions:
- Why Do Some Mites Occupy Both Ears of a Moth?
- Which Mites Live In the Ears of Moths?
- How Many Different Kinds of Mites Are There In the World?
- What Types of Mites Live On Human Skin and How Many People Have Mites In Their Nose?
- How Are Mites Important To People and Why Are Some Mites Considered Pests?
