Where to find a mate? Resource-based sexual communication of webbing clothes moth.

Abstract

Mate location in moths typically entails long-range attraction of males to female-produced pheromone. Here, we show that male and female webbing clothes moths, Tineola bisselliella, seek larval habitats (dry carrion, animal lairs, etc) to encounter mates. With males seeking, and arriving at, larval habitat earlier at night than females, male-produced pheromonal and sonic signals enhance the habitat's attractiveness to females. This resource-based mating strategy of T bisselliella differs from that known for most other moths. It may have evolved in response to larval habitats that are patchy and temporary, but that disseminate attractive semiochemicals so abundantly that T bisselliella encounter them more readily than their own pheromones.