Expert: Walter Hintz - 11/13/2005

Question
I am a writer working on a novel. One of my characters is a scientist who studies the essence in plants and bugs. I want the moths attracted to tanins in the plants. I know tannins are active ingredients in purple grapes or more specifically the anthocyanins and that's maybe more technical than I need to be in the novel. This is a character driven novel, a mystery of sorts, but not science fiction.  I just need a little science. Could a bug be drawn to tannins? This is fiction and I can make it up? Or is that too much of a stretch? Or is there some other thing that they might be attracted to?


Answer
 Hi Julie
Tannins actual act as a repellant to insects.  You may consider pheromones as insect attractents.  There are ideas that plants can produce pheromones.  It may be neat idea to have a plant that synthesises an insect pheramone.
Moths are very dependent upon pheromones.
 Pollinating insects are of course attracted to odors in flowering plants.