Chemical Communication

Abstract

Over a century ago, the French naturalist Jean-Henri Fabré confined an unmated female giant peacock moth in a container hidden on his desk; the following evening, over 40 male moths arrived, in Fabré’s words, ‘eager to pay their respects to their marriageable bride born that morning.’ The container was not airtight, and because even the empty container was of intense interest to the attracted males, Fabré suggested that the attraction must be chemical, but he was puzzled because he could not smell anything emanating from his female moth.