Louise ' Gallie, age 13, of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, for her question:

Do moths have a sense of smell?

So far as we know, all insects can smell. However, they either ignore or cannot detect the multitude of odors that do not concern them. The senses of insects are fantastic, though naturally each of the million or so species has his or her preferences. In most cases, the various sense organs are located in teams of tiny pegs on the antennas. These sensitive feelers detect taste and smell, temperature and humidity, sounds and touch    plus a variety of chemicals of personal interest to each species.

Moths are velvety fliers of the night and they depend on their feathery antennas to guide them by various odors. The females use their sense of smell to select suitable plants and other objects to lay their eggs. The grubs will hatch in a pantry of food, just because Mama was able to sniff out just the right formula for them. Her sense of smell is extremely acute, at least in matters that concern her family and herself..

The life cycle on which the preservation of a species depends begins, of course, with the mating of the parents. And in this department, nature as usual takes no chances. She makes very certain that Mr. Moth is able to find his lady love when the courting season comes around. She gives off a special brand of perfume, just for him.. And the sensitive organs of smell in his feathery antenna can detect it from afar, even among a multitude of other stronger odors.

A couple of generations ago, scientists found this talent in the silkworm moth and isolated the female's special courting perfume. To human noses, it has a slight, rather pleasant scent of leather. Apparently she is unaware of it    but a mere whiff of it calls the male from afar. He may be seven long miles away    across a city dump reeking with all sorts of powerful odors. But if there is a tiny trace of her perfume in the air, his sensitive antennas detect it. Then he flies upwind, using his two antennas to direct him on course. A zillion strong odors along the way fail to distract him from his rendezvous.

The perfume of the gypsy moth has been isolated and chemically synthesized. Ecologists hope that devices of this sort may be used to control this moth and other destructive insects. In this case, the males were fooled by the synthetic perfume and clustered around it. Apparently they can detect one molecule of this odor in 200,000 air molecules. Such evidence suggests that at least some of the moths have sell detectors that are about eight times more acute than human sniffers.

The glamorous, swallow tailed luna moth is another example of the same reaction to sexy perfume. The slightest whiff in the air is enough to guide him a mile or more to his Wy love. Luna moths also reveal other superhuman sensitivities. They can see short wave colors in the ultra violet, beyond our range of vision. To our eyes, the male and the female are both pale glimmering green. In the eyes of the luna moths themselves, she is a fragile blond and he is a dusky brunette.