Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time. A moth’s wings do much more than help these pollinating insects fly. Their powdery look comes from tiny scales made of sensitive hairs that help moths stay stable in the air, thermoregulate, and taste sweet and bitter molecules. Now, a study recently published in the Journal of Experimental Biology found that in tobacco hawkmoths (Manduca sexta), they can even help the insects smell.  A team of scientists in Germany initially suspected that moth wings may be able to detect certain aromas based on earlier research.  “The tobacco hawkmoth was recently found to have receptor proteins in its wings that could detect different smells and tastes,” study co-author Sonja Bisch-Knaden, a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, explained in a statement.  …