Odor-guided flight in moths, page 2

Moths, like most flying animals, control much of their in-flight maneuvering using their eyes to detect how it is moving through the environment. When the air the moths are flying through is moving (wind), the main way they can tell which direction the wind is blowing is by watching the ground moving by underneath them. If the flow of the ground beneath them is from head to tail, then they are flying straight ahead; if the visual flow is directly across their eyes from right to left they are moving directly to the right.

Floor pattern experiments

The moths probably also use the line where the sky meets the ground (the horizon) as a way to know which direction is up. One way to show how important visual information is in enabling a flying animal to successfully track an odor plume to the source is to challenge the same moth to track an odor plume over different visual patterns.

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