Re: #*!% fragrance!
- To: i*@rt66.com
- Subject: Re: #*!% fragrance!
- From: t*@lanl.gov (Tom Tadfor Little)
- Date: Fri, 16 Aug 1996 08:17:45 -0600
Mike writes
:If you do not have firm knowledge of whether a pest is following visual
:cues or an odor trail; watch the approach to the attractant. If the cue is
:visual, the pest will take a straight line to the flower. If the cue is
:odor, the insect will 'quarter' or curve back and forth as it flies in and
:out of the downwind odor plume. The flight pattern for visuals versus odor
:seekers seems to be built-in, and optimized for successful foraging using
:their particular search strategy.
Thanks for the very interesting observation! As to the cause of the
flight pattern, odor is transmitted by drifting molecules,
so there is no way to pinpoint the source of an odor with anything like
the resolution that visible light (or even IR) provides. Even if one
could tell the direction the molecule was traveling when it was
detected, one could not infer the direction of the source. There is
simply no way to find the source of an odor except testing different
placing and noting whether it is stronger or weaker there. You see
tracking dogs do the same thing, although they usually don't need to
go more than a few inches off the trail to get the message.
Cheers, Tom.
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Tom Tadfor Little tlittle@lanl.gov -or- telp@Rt66.com
technical writer/editor Los Alamos National Laboratory
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Telperion Productions http://www.rt66.com/~telp/
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