People have been working for a long time on these wave patterns, trying to understand how they work, and it's been a real bear. Vickers chose male moths for his project because they make ideal research candidates. As nocturnal insects, much of the behavioral repertoire of moths involves odor. The male moth can detect minute amounts of female pheromone and respond by valiantly flying upwind toward its object of amour. Vickers maintained that as long as the conditions are right, the male moth will respond every time.
Moths have very nice, reliable behavior patterns.
This, coupled with the fact that moths have a relatively simple but accessible antenna, makes them ideal for experiments. Vickers' research consisted of three main experiments. In the first of these, Vickers removed the antenna from the moth. These cells can still operate for about an hour after being removed from the moth. The antenna was placed at one end of a wind tunnel constructed with a plastic tube about a yard long and with a 16-inch diameter width, which was stimulated with different odor plumes.