Pheromones and flight behavior

Thus, this chapter focuses on studies of the flight behavior of male moths. Many of the mechanisms that they use most likely are shared by other insects flying to odor sources. For instance, the tracks of gravid female navel orange worm moths, Amyelois transitella, flying upwind to almond oil volatiles are quite similar to those of males of this species flying to female sex pheromone.1 Even the switchover from upwind flight to casting flight, following loss of the almond oil odor plume, bears striking resemblance to the same transition made by males losing the sex pheromone plume. Adult Drosophila hydei fly upwind to banana odor and switch to casting flight upon odor loss.2 These and other species that progress upwind or keep station while flying in odor plumes must, like male moths, necessarily use the mechanism of optomotor (see also Chapter 9) compensation for wind-induced drift.3.