Most sexy perfumes are delicate fragrances, but male cockchafer beetles find
a noxious, corrosive chemical called benzoquinone much more attractive.
Benzoquinone is used by many insects as a chemical weapon to fight off enemies.
But when Joachim Ruther and his colleagues from the Free University of Berlin
investigated how cockchafers get together to mate, they found that benzoquinone
was a key ingredient.
During the mating season, male cockchafers swarm at dusk, while the females
stay feeding on leaves. Ruther found the males first fly towards chemicals
released from the damaged leaves, then home in on benzoquinone to find a mate…
