Attractancy to odorants

Other fish species do not respond to predator odors. The threadfin shad, Doro-soma petenense, is strongly attracted to odors of its prey such as brine shrimp [Artemia) or Daphnia spp. but does not respond to those of its predator, the large-mouth bass, M. salmonides, or conspecifics. Both shad and bass swim faster than chemicals travel in water, which may explain this behavior difference (McMahon and Tash, 1979). 

Leaf surface compounds provide important information about host-plant acceptability to coleopteran insects. Although the tortoise beetle, Cassida canaliculata, is only weakly attracted to odors from host plants, it shows strong preferences for host plants when additional contact cues are provided.64 The cottonwood leaf beetle, Chrysomela scripta, which is a pest of cottonwood, poplar, and willow, is stimulated to feed by leaf surface chemicals produced by a beetle-preferred poplar clone 65 The feeding stimulants have been isolated and identified as 1-docosanol, 1-tetracosanol, 1-hexacosanol, 1-octacosanol, 1-triacontanol, and... 

O Connell, R. J., 1983, Estrous cycle modtdation of the attraction to odors in female golden hamsters, Behav. Neural Biol. 37 317-325. 

Johnston, R.E. 1981. Attraction to odors in hamsters an evaluation of methods, J. Comp. Physiol. Psychol, 95, 951-960. 

Comwall-Jones C.A. (1988). DSP4 a noradrenergic neurotoxin, impairs male rats attraction to conspecific odors. Behav Neural Biol 50, 1-15. 

In addition to their role in chemical defense, DMSP-lyase products may also function as chemical cue in more complex trophic cascades. In the natural environment DMS-production is related to zooplankton herbivory [60] and can thus act as an indicator for the availability of food for planktivorous birds. Indeed, some Antarctic Procellariiform seabirds can detect DMS (22) and are highly attracted to the cue, as was shown with DMS-scented oil slicks on the ocean surface [61]. The odors released during zooplankton grazing (DMS) as well as those of zooplankton itself (e.g., trimethylamine and pyrazines) are attractive to birds [62], thus assisting vertebrate search behavior. 

In general, rodents that have been exposed to an artificial odor during early life show an increased attraction to stimulus animals scented with that odor as adults. Increased odor preference following early exposure has been observed in female mice (Mainardi, Marsan and Pasquali 1965) and male rats (Marr and Gardner 1965). In some cases, this odor preference translates into increases in mating efficiency with females of the familiar scent. Specifically, male rats reared with citral-scented dams ejaculate faster when mating with citral-scented females compared to normal-scented females (Fillion and Blass 1986). 

Our laboratory has begun to determine if this phenomenon of experience-dependent attraction to male volatile cues also occurs in female Syrian hamsters, as experiential effects on odor preference may vary according to species. Syrian hamsters provide an ideal model species for studying sexual preference as these behaviors are almost exclusively mediated by chemosensory cues (Johnston 1983). Furthermore, both males and females display robust preferences for opposite-sex volatile odors that are independent of adult sexual experience (Landauer, Banks and Carter 1977 Petrulis and Johnston 1999), suggesting that early olfactory experience may play a critical role in the development of these behaviors. 

Devor, M. and Schneider, G. E. (1974) Attraction to home-cage odor in hamster pups Specificity and changes with age. Behav. Biol. 10, 211-221. 

Moncho-Bogani, J., Martinez-Garcia, F., Novejarque, A. and Lanuza, E. (2005) Attraction to sexual pheromones and associated odorants in female mice involves activation of the reward system and basolateral amygdala. Eur. J. Neurosci. 21, 2186-2198. 

Much of the current data show that individuals spend different amounts of time self-grooming when they encounter particular opposite-sex conspecifics or their odors (Ferkin 2005, 2006 Ferkin and Leonard 2005). Thus, it is likely that an individual s age will also influence the amount of self-grooming. For instance, a study on meadow voles indicated that 12-13 mo old males spent more time than 2-3 and 8-9 mo old males investigating the scent marks of female conspecifics (Ferkin 1999). This study also found that and 8-9 mo-old female voles spent more time investigating the scent marks of 12-13 mo-old males than those of 8-9 mo-old and 2-3 mo-old males younger males (Ferkin 1999). These findings suggest that older male voles may be more interested in and attractive to females as compared... 

In the same way as volatiles from the whole breast, odorants carried in human colostrum/milk are arousing and attractive to newborns (Mizuno, Mizuno, Shino-hara and Noda 2004 Marlier and Schaal 2005). Interestingly, neonatal responsiveness to these milk cues does not seem to depend on breastfeeding experience as term-born infants exclusively fed formula (Marlier and Schaal 2005), and premature infants (Bingham et al. 2003), react to them in the same way as regularly breast-fed infants. 

Food odors are also important as attractants for traps both on their own or in combination with pheromone lures as synergists or additive attractants. Food odors can be used to improve the capture of species that do not have commercially available pheromone lures, of females that do not respond to traps with sex pheromones, and of immature stages. In a number of situations, pheromones combined with food odor are more attractive then either alone (Landolt and Phillips, 1997 Phillips et al., 1993 Trematerra and Girgenti, 1989). Food odor has an advantage over food bait packs because typically the insect is unable to develop on the chemical fraction containing the attractant in contrast to food bait packs. The effectiveness of food attractants can be diminished in environments that contain other food odors. 

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