How hawkmoths sniff out a flower: Pollinators such as butterflies and bees are the true targets of the flower odors we love so much. Though we might imagine insects “following their noses,” the wealth of odors in the real world can drown out the smell of a flower, making it hard to find. Riffel et al. found that hawkmoths find angel's trumpets by creating a neuronal picture within their antennal lobe, the part of the moth brain that receives olfactory signals from the antennae (see the Perspective by Szyszka). The picture represents both the flower and the background odors. Finding a flower involves a complex reading of both background and target odors, and changes in the background odors—including human pollutants—can hinder the process. Science , this issue p. 1515 ; see also p. 1454

Spatiotemporal variability in floral resources can have ecological and evolutionary consequences for both plants and the pollinators on which they depend. Seldom, however, can patterns of flower abundance and visitation in the field be linked with the behavioral mechanisms that allow floral visitors to persist when a preferred resource is scarce. To explore these mechanisms better, we examined factors controlling floral preference in the hawkmoth Manduca sexta in the semiarid grassland of Arizona. Here, hawkmoths forage primarily on flowers of the bat-adapted agave, Agave palmeri , but shift to the moth-adapted flowers of their larval host plant, Datura wrightii , when these become abundant. Both plants emit similar concentrations of floral odor, but scent composition, nectar, and flower reflectance are distinct between the two species, and A. palmeri flowers provide six times as much chemical energy as flowers of D. wrightii . Behavioral experiments with both naïve and experienced moths revealed that hawkmoths learn to feed from agave flowers through olfactory conditioning but readily switch to D. wrightii flowers, for which they are the primary pollinator, based on an innate odor preference. Behavioral flexibility and the olfactory contrast between flowers permit the hawkmoths to persist within a dynamic environment, while at the same time to function as the major pollinator of one plant species.

A Varied Bouquet: Pollinators display innate attractions to odor, but can also learn to associate odor with a nectar reward. Riffell et al. (p. 200 , published online 6 December; see the Perspective by Knaden and Hansson ) characterized the odor profile for flowers to which hawkmoths are innately attracted and found that the majority contain a distinct chemical profile, which is uniquely represented on their olfactory lobe. The moths could also be trained to associate nonattractive odors with a reward and thus learn novel odor attractions. Though learning altered neurons within the antennal lobe, the innate preferences were not changed.

The morphological sensillum types on the antennae of male and female Cactoblastis cactorum were visualized by scanning electron microscopy. Electrophysiological recordings were performed for the first time on single olfactory sensilla of C. cactorum. The male sensilla trichodea house a receptor cell responding to the putative pheromone component (9Z,12E)-tetradecadienyl acetate. The sensilla trichodea of the females were much shorter than those of the males and contained specialized receptor cells responding to certain terpenoids, the most frequent being the nerolidol-sensitive cell. The sensilla auricillica and sensilla basiconica of both sexes contained cells responding less specifically to terpenoid compounds as well as to green leaf volatiles. Cells of the sensilla coeloconica responded to aliphatic aldehydes and acids. Eight volatile organic compounds emitted by Opuntia stricta, a host plant of C. cactorum, were identified using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, β-caryophyllene being the major compound. Five compounds identified by gas chromatography in the headspace of O. stricta elicited responses in olfactory receptor cells of C. cactorum, nonanal being the most active compound and therefore a candidate attractant of C. cactorum.