Moth Radio -

[Alan Sondheim]

Moth Radio -


an unpublished letter by Edwin Way Teale found in a copy of Near Horizons,
Dodd, Mead, and Company, NY, 1942, bought at Heights Books in Brooklyn,
NY, May 2005 -


Edwin Way Teale
93 Park Avenue
Baldwin, L. I.
New York

January 10, 19(4/5)3   */typewriter overstrike; the date is unclear/*

Mr. Harold Watson,
68 William Street,
New York City,N.Y. */sic/*

Dear Mr. Watson:

 	So far as I know, the hypothesis that the Cecropia and other moths
may employ a kind of radio in attracting their mates, is merely an
interesting theory unsupported by concrete evidence. There have been
numerous suggestions that the insects have some sixth sense or other
mysterious faculty. I don't think that either you or I can say with
absolute finality that they do or do not. But I am sure that the burden of
proof is on the person who makes such a proposal rather than vice versa.
Until more evidence that */sic/* I have seen so far is brought forth, I,
personally, will continue to believe that the acts of these amazing little
creatures are governed by the senses we know rather than by some vague or
mysterious factor whose existence remains to be proved. Unless the scent
organs are also the centers of the "moth radios," I don't see how we can
get around the experiments which reveal that male moths fly to the scent
organs rather than the moth itself--or even to a container in which the
female has rested rather than to the female herself when she is enclosed
in an airtight container from which no odor can escape. And radio waves
can go through glass. It is an interesting subject, but, as I say, the
burden of proof is on the proponents of the new and radical theory and
researches */sic/* should be made before such a theory is accepted, even
tentatively.

Most Sincerely Yours,

Edwin W. Teale