Ensembles of the leaf trichomes of Arabidopsis thaliana selectively vibrate in the frequency range of its primary insect herbivore

Selective sensation of sound by the plant Arabidopsis thaliana may enable the timely upregulation of defensive compounds to protect against caterpillars of the plant’s primary insect herbivore. Vibration of leaf trichomes has been shown to occur over frequency ranges that are appropriate for responding to these caterpillars, but the distribution of trichome shapes and sizes over a leaf means that a range of sounds could possibly be transduced....