In pursuit of Bombykol

Pheromones are volatile chemical messenger molecules which organisms emit to communicate with other organisms, usually of the same species. The systematic study of chemical communications began in the 1870s when French entomologist Jean Henri Fabre (1823-1915) showed for the first time that smell, not sight or sound, was the sense which guided male moths in their search of the female.¹ 

In a series of experiments at his home at Sérignan in southern France, Fabre removed the antennae of male giant emperor moths and found that without these the males could not find the female. Putting the female in a closed box had a similar effect. However, he also noticed that surrounding the female with saucers of smelly substances such as naphthalene or sodium sulfide did not affect the male moth's ability to locate his mate. Fabre went on to show that the male was attracted to an empty cage occupied by the female the previous night, as if she had left a love bait for him. However, it would take another 80 years for the first pheromone - bombykol (E -10-Z -12-hexadecadien-1-ol, 1) - to be isolated from the female silkworm moth Bombyx mori and synthesised.