Hawk moths have second nose for evaluating flowers

Posted by on May 27, 2016 3:26 pm
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Categories: Science

Manduca sexta hawk moth use their proboscis to smell the floral volatiles when they visit flowers, report scientists. They discovered the olfactory neurons involved in the perception of these volatiles on the Manduca proboscis. Only when flowers produced volatiles did the moths stay long enough to drink nectar, and only then did they deliver enough pollen on their proboscis to successfully pollinate other scenting flowers.

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