What’s That Fragrance You’re Wearing?
Images by Joseph Scheer
It
may not sound like the hottest thing to hit perfume counters since
Chanel No. 5, but to polyphemus moths,11-Hexadecadienyl acetate is the
very aroma of love. Females release this compound from special glands.
Males that encounter the drifting plume of scent change course
immediately, flying upwind on four-to-six-inch (10-to-15 centimeter)
wings to find the pheromone-emitting female and mate with her. As in
many moth species, Antheraea polyphemus males (specimen shown directly
above) can detect the come-hither fragrance of a willing female from
more than a mile away.
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