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Updated: Jun 19, 2026
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A Simple Way to Measure Ethanol Sensitivity in Flies
Published on: February 19, 2011
REJECTION THRESHOLDS OF THE BLOWFLY FOR A SERIES OF ALIPHATIC ALCOHOLS
1Medical Division, Army Chemical Corps, Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland.
The Journal of General Physiology
|October 30, 2009
Summary
Blowflies
Area of Science:
- Insect physiology
- Sensory biology
- Chemoreception
Background:
- Aliphatic alcohols can elicit responses in insects.
- Understanding the mechanisms of chemoreception is crucial for insect control and biological studies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between the chemical properties of aliphatic alcohols and their stimulative power on blowfly tarsi.
- To determine the limiting factors in the sensory response of blowflies to alcohols.
Main Methods:
- Presented a series of aliphatic alcohol concentrations to the tarsi of blowflies (Phormia regina Meigen).
- Analyzed rejection thresholds and correlated them with various physicochemical properties of the alcohols.
Main Results:
- A Traube series was observed for primary n-alcohols.
- High correlations were found between rejection thresholds and boiling points, vapor pressures, molecular surface areas, molecular moments, distribution coefficients, standard free energies, and activity coefficients.
- Stimulative power was not dependent on osmotic pressure or diffusion rate.
Conclusions:
- The limiting process in alcohol stimulation is related to receptor cells.
- Surface energy relationships are involved in stimulation, but the precise mechanism requires further investigation.
- Physiological activity correlates with the ease of alcohol cell access rather than chemical interaction.
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