Male moth 'aphrodisiac' revealed

North Carolina State University researchers have identified the specific blend of pheromone chemicals—including a newly revealed aphrodisiac—used by male moths during courtship as they attempt to entice females to mate.

Don't like spiders? Here are 10 reasons to change your mind

Australia is famous for its supposedly scary spiders. While the sight of a spider may cause some people to shudder, they are a vital part of nature. Hostile reactions are harming conservation efforts—especially when people ...

Like moths to a colorful flame

A nocturnal moth may be using its colorful wing patterns to attract a female mate, according to new research led by The University of Western Australia and the Adolphe Merkle Institute in Switzerland.

Darwin was right: Females prefer sex with good listeners

Almost 150 years after Charles Darwin first proposed a little-known prediction from his theory of sexual selection, researchers have found that male moths with larger antennae are better at detecting female signals.

Nature's cheats—how animals and plants trick and deceive

As night closes in across Kentucky a small chubby spider makes a silk line between two plants. She then moves along her "trapeze wire" and waits. After a while a moth approaches within range, and the spider unleashes a swinging ...

What a moth's nose knows

Moths sniff out others of their own species using specific pheromone blends. So if you transplant an antenna—the nose, essentially—from one species to another, which blend of pheromones does the moth respond to? The donor ...

Insect mating behavior has lessons for drones

Male moths locate females by navigating along the latter's pheromone (odor) plume, often flying hundreds of meters to do so. Two strategies are involved to accomplish this: males must find the outer envelope of the pheromone ...

page 1 from 2