Editing Luna moth (section)

=== Mating ===

Giant silk moths have in common a mating process wherein the females, at night, release volatile sex [[pheromone]]s, which the males, flying, detect via their large [[Antenna (biology)|antennae]]. Males can detect these molecules at a distance of several miles, and then fly in the direction the wind is coming from until reaching the female. Luna moth females mate with the first males to find them, a process that typically starts after midnight and takes several hours.<ref name=Tuskes1996 /> Researchers extracted three chemical compounds from the pheromone gland of unmated Luna moth females and identified one major and two minor aldehyde compounds designated ''E''6,''Z''11-18:Ald, ''E''6-18:Ald and ''Z''11-18:Ald. The same compounds were also synthesized. Field experiments with both unmated females and the synthesized compounds confirmed that E6, Z11-18:Ald was the major sex pheromone, attraction augmented by the addition of E6-18:Ald but not by Z11-18:Ald. The authors mentioned that no other moth species were attracted to either the unmated females or the synthesized products, confirming that the pheromone is species-specific, at least for the sites and dates where it was tested.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Millar JG, Haynes KF, Dossey AT, McElfresh JS, Allison JD |title=Sex attractant pheromone of the Luna moth, ''Actias luna'' (Linnaeus) |journal=[[Journal of Chemical Ecology]] |volume=42 |issue=9 |pages=869–876 |date=2016 |pmid=27544534 |doi=10.1007/s10886-016-0751-6 |bibcode=2016JCEco..42..869M |s2cid=44327978 }}</ref>