Abstract
NUMBERS of moths, of many different species, are attracted into my room on summer evenings by the light; and they are fond of resting on the lamp shade. One night I was using some very strong ammonia solution—and by way of driving them off I held a 3-ounce bottle of it with the open mouth almost close to them. To my surprise they seemed quite unconscious of it as a smell; they would bear it unmoved for a minute, or sometimes for two or three minutes, and they then merely walked an inch or two further away from it. I have since tried the experiment repeatedly, and with several different species; but none of them seem to detect the presence of ammonia except as a man might detect the presence of carbonic acid or of nitrogen in excess, that is, by their effects on his system generally.
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C., J. Smell and Hearing in Moths. Nature 17, 45 (1877). https://doi.org/10.1038/017045d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/017045d0
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