The Lost Signal by Lost and Loud Creative Studio

Lost and Loud Creative Studio

The Lost Signal is a home for deeply-researched, plainly-told science mini-series about the hidden workings of the living world.

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S1 · E8
Friday · 10 min
Methods of Deception - Episode 8: Forging the Next Generation
Every living thing that has ever been hunted has faced the same problem: how not to be seen, not to be caught, not to be believed. The Methods of Deception is a narrated journey through the astonishing ways that animals and even the odd plant and single cell, deceive one another to survive: the disguises, the mimicry, the bluffs, and the vanishing acts that evolution has been perfecting for hundreds of millions of years. Everything in this episode is grounded in real biology. Here’s where to read more: Davies, N. B. (2000), Cuckoos, Cowbirds and Other Cheats. T & AD Poyser; and Rothstein, S. I. (1990), “A model system for coevolution: Avian brood parasitism,” Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 21, 481–508. Jenner, E. (1788), “Observations on the natural history of the cuckoo,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 78, 219–237. Anderson, M. G., et al. (2009), “Egg eviction imposes a recoverable cost of virulence in chicks of a brood parasite,” PLoS ONE, 4(11), e7725. Davies, N. B., Kilner, R. M., & Noble, D. G. (1998), “Nestling cuckoos, Cuculus canorus, exploit hosts with begging calls that mimic a brood,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 265, 673–678. Stoddard, M. C., & Stevens, M. (2010), “Pattern mimicry of host eggs by the common cuckoo, as seen through a bird’s eye,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 277, 1387–1393; Stoddard, M. C., Kilner, R. M., & Town, C. (2014), “Pattern recognition algorithm reveals how birds evolve individual egg pattern signatures,” Nature Communications, 5, 4117. Spottiswoode, C. N., et al. (2022), “Genetic architecture facilitates then constrains adaptation in a host–parasite coevolutionary arms race,” PNAS, 119(17). Davies, N. B., & Welbergen, J. A. (2008), “Cuckoo–hawk mimicry? An experimental test,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 275, 1817–1822. Ma, L., & Yang, C. (2018), “Hawk mimicry does not reduce attacks of cuckoos by highly aggressive hosts,” Avian Research, 9, 35. Colombelli-Négrel, D., et al. (2012), “Embryonic learning of vocal passwords in superb fairy-wrens reveals intruder cuckoo nestlings,” Current Biology, 22, 2155–2160. Schuetz, J. G. (2005), “Reduced growth but not survival of chicks with altered gape patterns: implications for the evolution of nestling similarity in a parasitic finch,” Animal Behaviour, 70, 839–848. Hoover, J. P., & Robinson, S. K. (2007), “Retaliatory mafia behavior by a parasitic cowbird favors host acceptance of parasitic eggs,” PNAS, 104, 4479–4483. Sato, T. (1986), “A brood parasitic catfish of mouthbrooding cichlid fishes in Lake Tanganyika,” Nature, 323, 58–59. Danforth, B. N., Minckley, R. L., & Neff, J. L. (2019), The Solitary Bees: Biology, Evolution, Conservation. Princeton University Press. Matsuura, K. (2006), “Termite-egg mimicry by a sclerotium-forming fungus,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 273, 1203–1209; Matsuura, K., et al. (2009), “Cuckoo fungus mimics termite eggs by producing the cellulose-digesting enzyme β-glucosidase,” Current Biology, 19, 30–36. This episode was created by Lost and Loud Creative Lab (https://lostandloud.art/). The research, writing, and direction are our own, with script assistance from Claude, an AI by Anthropic. The narration is an artificial voice by ElevenLabs.
S1 · E7
October 15 · 11 min
Methods of Deception - Episode 7: Faking a Mate
Every living thing that has ever been hunted has faced the same problem: how not to be seen, not to be caught, not to be believed. The Methods of Deception is a narrated journey through the astonishing ways that animals and even the odd plant and single cell, deceive one another to survive: the disguises, the mimicry, the bluffs, and the vanishing acts that evolution has been perfecting for hundreds of millions of years. Everything in this episode is grounded in real biology. Here’s where to read more: Pseudocopulation in Ophrys orchids and the finding that scent, not looks, is the master key: Schiestl, F. P., et al. (1999), “Orchid pollination by sexual swindle,” Nature, 399(6735), 421–422; reviewed in Gaskett, A. C. (2011), “Orchid pollination by sexual deception: Pollinator perspectives,” Biological Reviews, 86(1), 33–75. The hammer orchid’s hinged catapult: Peakall, R. (1990), “Responses of male Zaspilothynnus trilobatus Turner wasps to females and the sexually deceptive orchid it pollinates,” Functional Ecology, 4(2), 159–167. The tongue orchid: Gaskett, A. C., Winnick, C. G., & Herberstein, M. E. (2008), “Orchid sexual deceit provokes ejaculation,” The American Naturalist, 171(6), E206–E212. The South African daisy’s fake flies: Ellis, A. G., & Johnson, S. D. (2010), “Floral mimicry enhances pollen export,” The American Naturalist, 176(5), E143–E151; and Kellenberger, R. T., et al. (2023), “Multiple gene co-options underlie the rapid evolution of sexually deceptive flowers in Gorteria diffusa,” Current Biology, 33(8), 1502–1512. Carrion flowers: Urru, I., Stensmyr, M. C., & Hansson, B. S. (2011), “Pollination by brood-site deception,” Phytochemistry, 72(13), 1655–1666. The ruff’s permanent female-mimic males (faeders): Jukema, J., & Piersma, T. (2006), “Permanent female mimics in a lekking shorebird,” Biology Letters, 2(2), 161–164. The cuttlefish that shows male colours to the female and female colours to the rival, at once: Brown, C., Garwood, M. P., & Williamson, J. E. (2012), “It pays to cheat: tactical deception in a cephalopod social signalling system,” Biology Letters, 8(5), 729–732. The “sensory trap”: Christy, J. H. (1995), “Mimicry, mate choice, and the sensory trap hypothesis,” The American Naturalist, 146(2), 171–181. This episode was created by Lost and Loud Creative Lab (https://lostandloud.art/). The research, writing, and direction are our own, with script assistance from Claude, an AI by Anthropic. The narration is an artificial voice by ElevenLabs.
S1 · E6
September 24 · 12 min
Methods of Deception - Episode 6: The Lure
Every living thing that has ever been hunted has faced the same problem: how not to be seen, not to be caught, not to be believed. The Methods of Deception is a narrated journey through the astonishing ways that animals and even the odd plant and single cell, deceive one another to survive: the disguises, the mimicry, the bluffs, and the vanishing acts that evolution has been perfecting for hundreds of millions of years. Everything in this episode is grounded in real biology. Here’s where to read more: The lure on a line — the anglerfish and its shallow-water cousin the frogfish: Pietsch, T. W., & Grobecker, D. B. (1978), "The compleat angler: Aggressive mimicry in an antennariid anglerfish," Science, 201(4353), 369–370. The spider-tailed viper that grows a fake spider to fish for birds: Fathinia, B., Rastegar-Pouyani, N., Rastegar-Pouyani, E., Todehdehghan, F., & Amiri, F. (2015), "Avian deception using an elaborate caudal lure in Pseudocerastes urarachnoides," Amphibia-Reptilia, 36(3), 223–231. The blenny that mimics a cleaner fish and bites the customer: Wickler, W. (1968), Mimicry in plants and animals. McGraw-Hill. The margay that imitates a baby tamarin's cry to draw the adults in: Calleia, F. O., Rohe, F., & Gordo, M. (2009), "Hunting strategy of the margay (Leopardus wiedii) to attract the wild pied tamarin (Saguinus bicolor)," Neotropical Primates, 16(1), 32–34. Cone snails that lure fish with weaponized insulin: Safavi-Hemami, H., et al. (2015), "Specialized insulin is used for chemical warfare by fish-hunting cone snails," PNAS, 112(6), 1743–1748. The "femme fatale" firefly that flashes another species' code: Lloyd, J. E. (1965), "Aggressive mimicry in Photuris: Firefly femmes fatales," Science, 149(3684), 653–654. The bolas spider that brews a female moth's perfume — and retunes it through the night: Eberhard, W. G. (1977), "Aggressive chemical mimicry by a bolas spider," Science, 198(4322), 1173–1175; and Haynes, K. F., et al. (2002), "Aggressive chemical mimicry of moth pheromones by a bolas spider," Chemoecology, 12(2), 99–105. The beetle larva that lures its own predator and eats it: Wizen, G., & Gasith, A. (2011), "An unprecedented role reversal: Ground beetle larvae (Coleoptera: Carabidae) lure amphibians and prey upon them," PLoS ONE, 6(9), e25161. This episode was created by Lost and Loud Creative Lab (https://lostandloud.art/). The research, writing, and direction are our own, with script assistance from Claude, an AI by Anthropic. The narration is an artificial voice by ElevenLabs.
S1 · E5
September 5 · 13 min
Methods of Deception - Episode 5: Playing Dead
Every living thing that has ever been hunted has faced the same problem: how not to be seen, not to be caught, not to be believed. The Methods of Deception is a narrated journey through the astonishing ways that animals and even the odd plant and single cell, deceive one another to survive: the disguises, the mimicry, the bluffs, and the vanishing acts that evolution has been perfecting for hundreds of millions of years. Everything in this episode is grounded in real biology. Here’s where to read more: Playing dead (thanatosis), the concept and the evidence: Humphreys, R. K., & Ruxton, G. D. (2018), "A review of thanatosis (death feigning) as an anti-predator behaviour," Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 72, 22. The opossum's collapse is involuntary, not an act: Francq, E. N. (1969), "Behavioral aspects of feigned death in the opossum Didelphis marsupialis," American Midland Naturalist, 81(2), 556–568. The hognose snake "peeks" — it holds the pose longer when watched: Burghardt, G. M., & Greene, H. W. (1988), "Predator simulation and duration of death feigning in neonate hognose snakes," Animal Behaviour, 36(6), 1842–1844. How long to stay dead is heritable and tunable (the beetle experiment): Miyatake, T., Katayama, K., Takeda, Y., Nakashima, A., Sugita, A., & Mizumoto, M. (2004), "Is death-feigning adaptive? Heritable variation in fitness difference of death-feigning behaviour," Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 271(1554), 2293–2296. A predator that plays dead to catch scavengers: McKaye, K. R. (1981), "Field observation on death feigning: a unique hunting behavior by the predatory cichlid, Haplochromis livingstoni, of Lake Malawi," Environmental Biology of Fishes, 6(3–4), 361–365. Orcas weaponizing the freeze — flipping sharks into tonic immobility: Higuera-Rivas, Jesús Erick, Francesca Pancaldi, Salvador J. Jorgensen, and Edgar Mauricio Hoyos-Padilla. "Novel evidence of interaction between killer whales (Orcinus orca) and juvenile white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) in the Gulf of California, Mexico." Frontiers in Marine Science 12 (2025): 1667683. Playing dead as a courtship move (the nursery web spider): Bilde, T., Tuni, C., Elsayed, R., Pekár, S., & Toft, S. (2005). Death feigning in the face of sexual cannibalism. Biology letters, 2(1), 23. This episode was created by Lost and Loud Creative Lab (https://lostandloud.art/). The research, writing, and direction are our own, with script assistance from Claude, an AI by Anthropic. The narration is an artificial voice by ElevenLabs.
S1 · E4
August 20 · 12 min
Methods of Deception - Episode 4: The Sudden Shock
Every living thing that has ever been hunted has faced the same problem: how not to be seen, not to be caught, not to be believed. The Methods of Deception is a narrated journey through the astonishing ways that animals and even the odd plant and single cell, deceive one another to survive: the disguises, the mimicry, the bluffs, and the vanishing acts that evolution has been perfecting for hundreds of millions of years. Everything in this episode is grounded in real biology. Here’s where to read more. The peacock butterfly experiment — and that even naive birds flinch: Vallin, A., Jakobsson, S., Lind, J., & Wiklund, C. (2005). Prey survival by predator intimidation: An experimental study of peacock butterfly defence against blue tits. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 272(1569), 1203–1207. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2004.3034 How eyespots deter predators: Stevens, M. (2005). The role of eyespots as anti-predator mechanisms, principally demonstrated in the Lepidoptera. Biological Reviews, 80(4), 573–588. The founding study of eyespot function: Blest, A. D. (1957). The function of eyespots in the Lepidoptera. Behaviour, 11(3), 209–256. Startle (deimatic) displays as a category: Umbers, K. D. L., De Bona, S., White, T. E., Lehtonen, J., Mappes, J., & Endler, J. A. (2017). Deimatism: A neglected component of antipredator defence. Biology Letters, 13(4), 20160936. This episode was created by Lost and Loud Creative Lab (https://lostandloud.art/). The research, writing, and direction are our own, with script assistance from Claude, an AI by Anthropic. The narration is an artificial voice by ElevenLabs.
S1 · E3
August 6 · 13 min
Methods of Deception - Episode 3: Faking Danger
Every living thing that has ever been hunted has faced the same problem: how not to be seen, not to be caught, not to be believed. The Methods of Deception is a narrated journey through the astonishing ways that animals and even the odd plant and single cell, deceive one another to survive: the disguises, the mimicry, the bluffs, and the vanishing acts that evolution has been perfecting for hundreds of millions of years. Everything in this episode is grounded in real biology. Here’s where to read more. Batesian mimicry, the founding idea: Bates (1862), "Contributions to an insect fauna of the Amazon valley," Transactions of the Linnean Society of London 23:495–566. Coral snakes, kingsnakes, and the clay-model test: Pfennig, Harcombe & Pfennig (2001), "Frequency-dependent Batesian mimicry," Nature 410:323. Mimicry that sharpened after the model vanished: Akcali & Pfennig (2014), "Rapid evolution of mimicry following local model extinction," Biology Letters 10:20140304. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24919704/ Predators born fearing the coral snake's rings: Smith (1975), "Innate recognition of coral snake pattern by a possible avian predator," Science 187:759–760. Why the smallest mimics are the worst: Penney et al. (2012), "A comparative analysis of the evolution of imperfect mimicry," Nature 483:461–464. https://www.nature.com/articles/nature10961 The burrowing owl's rattlesnake hiss: Rowe, Coss & Owings (1986), "Rattlesnake Rattles and Burrowing Owl Hisses: A Case of Acoustic Batesian Mimicry," Ethology 72:53–71. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1439-0310.1986.tb00605.x Tiger moths that click back at bats: Barber & Conner (2007), "Acoustic mimicry in a predator–prey interaction," PNAS 104:9331–9334. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0703627104 The comet fish's false moray-eel head: McCosker (1977), "Fright posture of the plesiopid fish Calloplesiops altivelis: an example of Batesian mimicry," Science 197:400–401. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.197.4301.400 Shared honest warnings, and the viceroy that wasn't a cheat: Müller (1879); Ritland & Brower (1991), "The viceroy butterfly is not a Batesian mimic," Nature 350:497–498. https://www.nature.com/articles/350497a0 This episode was created by Lost and Loud Creative Lab (https://lostandloud.art/). The research, writing, and direction are our own, with script assistance from Claude, an AI by Anthropic. The narration is an artificial voice by ElevenLabs.
S1 · E2
July 30 · 13 min
Methods of Deception - Episode 2: Hiding in Plain Sight
Every living thing that has ever been hunted has faced the same problem: how not to be seen, not to be caught, not to be believed. The Methods of Deception is a narrated journey through the astonishing ways that animals and even the odd plant and single cell, deceive one another to survive: the disguises, the mimicry, the bluffs, and the vanishing acts that evolution has been perfecting for hundreds of millions of years. Everything in this episode is grounded in real biology. Here’s where to read more. Masquerade, the core idea, and the experiments that proved it: Skelhorn et al. (2010), “Masquerade: Camouflage Without Crypsis,” Science 327:51. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1181931 A plain-language primer on masquerade: Skelhorn (2015), Current Biology 25:R643–R644. https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(15)00271-7 Dead leaf butterflies (Kallima): “Mystery Solved? How Butterflies Came to Look Like Dead Leaves,” National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/141210-butterflies-evolution-darwin-leaves-mimicry-science-animals Leaf insects, including nymphs that hatch red and turn green after eating leaves: “Leaf insect,” Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/animal/leaf-insect Satanic leaf-tailed gecko: “Uroplatus phantasticus,” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uroplatus_phantasticus Bird-dropping crab spiders that lure prey: Yu et al. (2021), “Masquerading predators deceive prey by aggressively mimicking bird droppings in a crab spider,” Current Zoology 68:325–334. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9113284 Macrocilix maia, the moth with a painted scene: “Here’s looking at poo,” BBC Science Focus. https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/heres-looking-at-poo-the-weird-and-wonderful-species-that-look-like-faeces Amazon leaf fish: Catarino & Zuanon (2010), “Feeding ecology of the leaf fish Monocirrhus polyacanthus in a terra firme stream in the Brazilian Amazon,” Neotropical Ichthyology 8:183–186. https://www.scielo.br/j/ni/a/KdbVBQVfcS8DTtGHkYtPpWJ/?lang=en This episode was created by Lost and Loud Creative Lab (https://lostandloud.art/). The research, writing, and direction are our own, with script assistance from Claude, an AI by Anthropic. The narration is an artificial voice by ElevenLabs.
S1 · E1
July 9 · 14 min
Methods of Deception - Episode 1: Vanishing
Every living thing that has ever been hunted has faced the same problem: how not to be seen, not to be caught, not to be believed. The Methods of Deception is a narrated journey through the astonishing ways that animals and even the odd plant and single cell, deceive one another to survive: the disguises, the mimicry, the bluffs, and the vanishing acts that evolution has been perfecting for hundreds of millions of years. Everything in this episode is grounded in real biology. Here's where to read more. Crypsis and counter-illumination (overview): "Counter-illumination," Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-illumination Hatchetfish, reflective skin and counter-illumination: Rosenthal et al. (2017), "Three-dimensional midwater camouflage from a novel two-component photonic structure in hatchetfish skin," J. R. Soc. Interface 14:20161034. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsif.2016.1034 Glass frog transparency: Taboada, Delia, et al. (2022), "Glassfrogs conceal blood in their liver to maintain transparency," Science 378:1315–1320. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abl6620 Seasonal camouflage and climate mismatch (snowshoe hare): Mills et al. (2013), "Camouflage mismatch in seasonal coat color due to decreased snow duration," PNAS 110:7360–7365. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1222724110 This episode was created by Lost and Loud Creative Lab (https://lostandloud.art/). The research, writing, and direction are our own, with script assistance from Claude, an AI by Anthropic. The narration is an artificial voice by ElevenLabs.

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