Insect olfactory responses

Struble, D. L. and Arn, H. (1984). Combined gas chromatography and electroantennogram recording of insect olfactory responses. In Techniques in Pheromone Research, eds. 

Recording of Insect Olfactory Response, In Techniques in Pheromone Research, H. Hummel, A.K Minks (Eds.), pp. 161-178, Springer-Verlag, ISBN 3-540-90919-2, New York, NY... 

The long range orientation of most other Insects In response to chemical attractants Is not nearly as clear. The olfactory orientation of the Colorado potato beetle has been studied In considerable detail by Vlsser and coworkers. 

Sun X. J., Tolbert L. P. and Hildebrand J. G. (1997) Synaptic organization of the uniglomerular projection neurons of the antennal lobe of the moth Manduca sexta a laser scanning confocal and electron microscopic study. J. Comp. Neurol. 379, 2-20. Takken W., van Loon J. J. A. and Adam W. (2001) Inhibition of host-seeking response and olfactory responsiveness in Anopheles gambiae following blood feeding. J. Insect. Physiol. 47, 303-310. 

If a spatial olfactory code underlies a subsequent identification of an odor, then we would expect concentration-dependent variations of odor maps to have an impact on the perceived odor quality. Stimulus concentration can indeed influence perception of odor quality and behavior of insects. For example, olfactory responses of the fruit fly, Drosophia melanogaster, shifted from attraction to repulsion as the concentration increased (Siddiqi, 1983 Stensmyr et al., 2003). Future studies should thus involve correlations of behavior with glomerular activity at different concentrations. 

Linster, C., Masson, C., Kerszberg, M., Personnaz, L., Dreyfus, G. Computational diversity in a formal model of the insect olfactory macroglomerulus. Neural Comput. 5, 228-241 (1993) Linster, C., Smith, B.H. A computational model of the response of honey bee antennal lobe circuitry to odor mixtures Overshadowing, blocking and unblocking can arise from lateral inhibition. Behav. Brain Res. 87, 1-14 (1997)... 

Kennedy, J. S., 1977, Olfactory responses to distinct plants and other odor sources, "Chemical Control of Insect Behavior, Theory... 

O Connell, R.J. Responses to Pheromone Blends in Insect Olfactory Receptor Neurons. J. Comp. Physiol. 156 A, 747-761 (1985). 

Kennedy, J. S. (1977) Olfactory responses to distant plants and other odor sources. In Chemical Control of Insect Behaviour (Shorey, H. H. and McKelvey Jr., J. J., eds) pp. 67-91, Wiley-Interscience, New York. 

When hungry or gravid insects move within centimeters of potential host plants and encounter their volatiles, displacement is often delimited by olfactory responses. Monarch butterfly larvae (Danausplexippus) not able to contact host and non-host foliage but moving on a screen immediately over the plants, turn and double back more frequently to milkweed foliage than to nonhost foliage (Dethier, 1937). In similar tests (de Wilde, 1958), Colorado potato... 

Vet, L.E.M., J.C. van Lenteren, M. Heymans E. Meelis. 1983. An airflow olfactometer for measuring olfactory responses of hymenopterous parasitoids and other small insects. Physiol. Entomol. 8 97-106. 

This way of viewing the olfactory system spotlights the kinds of information about odor stimuli to which the brain attends. For example, although the blend of components is essential to evoke and sustain the normal male responses to the sex pheromone, information about specific components is preserved through many levels of the pathway. Thus it appears that information about single components as well as their blend may be important for chemical communication in these insects. 

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