Insect Olfaction

Most animals are strongly dependent on odour information to survive and to reproduce. This dependency has in many species created very sensitive and specific odour-detecting systems – olfaction. One well-known interaction is the strong attraction of male dogs to a bitch in heat. In science a considerable amount of information is today available regarding olfactory structure and function from several model systems, including mice and fruitflies. Insects have proven to be interesting objects for olfactory studies, mainly because most of them are extremely odour-dependent, but also because their olfactory system can be used as a model both for olfactory functions and for sensory structure and evolution in general.