Three appear important for getting the female’s attention, he and his colleagues report today in Current Biology. All three are aldehydes, which are responsible for lots of odors. The three include one known to be an insect sex pheromone and another that smells like a pear. Females spend time sniffing or licking the places droplets from these odors settle, but only during the breeding season, and only when all three chemicals are present, the team found. This suggests the identified odors may aid courtship during the breeding season, Touhara says. Moreover, the more testosterone a male had, the stronger the sweet smell, he and his colleagues note. Most pheromones are single chemicals, says Charles Snowdon, an emeritus psychologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who was not involved with the work. “But what this paper is saying is that it’s a mixture of chemicals that seem to be more important,” he says.
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