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Science 23 April 1982:
Vol. 216. no. 4544, pp. 424 - 427
DOI: 10.1126/science.216.4544.424
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Articles

Pheromone Source Location by Flying Moths: A Supplementary Non-Anemotactic Mechanism

THOMAS C. BAKER 1 and L. P. S. KUENEN 1

1 Division of Toxicology and Physiology, Department of Entomology, University of California, Riverside 92521

After the wind was stopped in an insect flight tunnel, male oriental fruit moths continued to fly in zigzag fashion along a stationary pheromone plume. Their lateral excursions from the time-averaged pheromone plume were no greater without wind than in wind of 38 centimeters per second. When the pheromone plume was removed and the wind stopped, males initiated wider track reversals when they reached the pheromone-free area in still air than they had made while in the pheromone plume. This non-anemotactic mechanism of maintaining plume contact—possibly a special kind of klinotaxis—when coupled with the orthokinetic retinal velocity of apparent ground pattern motion, allowed males to reach the pheromone source area from 1 to 2 meters away without wind.

Submitted on November 2, 1981
Revised on February 22, 1982


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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M. A. Willis, J. L. Avondet, and A. S. Finnell (2008)
J. Exp. Biol. 211, 2317-2326
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Pheromone-triggered Orientation Flight of Male Moths can be Disrupted by Trifluoromethyl Ketones.
J. Bau, D. Martinez, M. Renou, and A. Guerrero (1999)
Chem Senses 24, 473-480
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