Height 2S to 150 feet 
Corn Field 
Macro Environment 
Body Warmth 
Chenical 
FIR 9.S6u at 90°F 
releaser (scent) 
Background 
& BD 
9.88 at 68°F 
0.4 miles 
incident enercy 
‘em>. 79°F 68°F \3x10-12 watts/cm? 
iumvexcs 50-90% 80-90% 
26 grams 13.7 grams 
Ho H 
1 te 2 miles 
' 
' 
' 
' 
| 
' 
Wind not important 
to location system 

Figure 16,--Summary of my theory on night-flying moths and IR environment (see text), 
sexes will certainly arrive in an area within 
one-fourth mile of one another. During their 
searching they are continuously vibrating their 
wings and thus producing a high thermal FIR 
signal. A corn earworm moth with an incident 
energy at 1 km. of 1.4 X 10-” watts/cm’. is 
emitting a detectable signal (table 4), 
The oscilloscope recordings show that as 
moths warm up the signals go up and down. 
This variation is similar to that of the on- 
and-off signaling fireflies demonstrated in the 
visible spectrum. The only difference is that 
the fireflies signal with visible incandescent 
light and the moths signals with incandescent 
IR. Species could thus assemble not only at 
their host plants or in areas of thermal in- 
versions but also in close proximity to each 
other. The final identification would be by a 
chemical releaser (scent), which would permit 
the sexes within the species to locate each 
other and initiate the clasper response. Since 
many noctuid and sphingid males also have 
scent glands, these chemical stimulators may 
inmany species be cross-identification mech- 
anisms (Callahan 1965b). 
175 
To summarize and in doing so to emphasize 
all my theories and evidence, I present the 
following (fig. 16): 
(1) Newly emerged moths wander in random 
flight over the countryside at considerable 
heights. 
(2) These moths are attracted by IR emis- 
sion and reflection into areas of host plants. 
(3) The efficiency of plant or moth attraction 
is dependent on prevailing weather parameters, 
which affect the IR transmission. In this re- 
gard, we might add that moths are also at- 
tracted into thermal pockets of optimum tem- 
perature. Thus, they would prefer pockets of 
cooler air scattered around in the warmer 
environment of a hot summer. This phenome- 
non would also enhance mate location. 
(4) Moths near each other, either because 
a plant or a pocket having optimum thermal 
parameters attracts them, vibrate their wings 
and send out FIR signals, which are identified 
by the IR eye or certain tuned spines of the 
antennae of the opposite sex. Thus, the males 
and females are brought within very close 
range of one another. 
