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F YOU’VE never heard of ‘hair pencils’ before, feast your eyes on the bizarre Creatonotos gangis. This moth takes courtship so seriously, it spreads its pheromones using enormous, inflatable appendages that unfurl from deep inside its abdomen. Found in the northern regions of Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland, and all across South East Asia, this moth has evolved an ingenious way to find mates – even if they’re several kilometres away. Hair pencils are highly specialised structures that can be found in many male butterflies and moths from the Lepidoptera insect group. Also known as coremata (which means “feather dusters” in Greek), they’re used by the males to waft a heady cocktail of chemicals into the surrounding environment. These chemicals have a dual function – when females are exposed, the chemicals act as both an aphrodisiac and tranquiliser, but when males of the same species get a whiff,
