STEALTHY SNIFFER: Carolina sphinx moths may use olfactory receptors in their proboscises to determine the presence of an odor molecule produced by a plant.DANNY KESSLER, MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL ECOLOGY
A stationary Carolina sphinx moth (Manduca sexta) is the Cinderella of the animal kingdom. The hummingbird-size insect has dull, dark wings that are mottled like charred wood, and a plump body reminiscent of a small breakfast sausage. Casual observers of M. sexta often see little else.
“They say, ‘Oh, it doesn’t look so nice. It’s just grey.’ But as soon as [the moths] start flying, they’re completely impressed,” says Danny Kessler, a pollination ecologist at the Max Planck Institute of Chemical Ecology in Germany. “They change their minds completely.”
Hawkmoths, the group to which M. sexta belongs, whir their wings like hummingbirds as they flit between flowers, hovering to drink nectar. M. sexta’s proboscis, longer than its 2-inch body, stays unfurled, a straw ready to ...
