Pheromone blend complexity in heliothine moths

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Insects, and particularly moths, rely heavily on sex pheromones as a means of odor-based communication to draw together opposite sexes. To date, thousands of sex pheromones have been identified, with each species having its own unique blend of chemicals which will attract a mate (typically produced by females to attract males of the same species). As such, there is incredible diversity in pheromone composition, but a poor understanding of the evolution and shifts in production, detection and preference of these chemicals as new species evolve and diverge from one another. This begs the question, “why are there so many unique pheromone blends?”