spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


spacer gif
     Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents    

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by SUDLOW, L. C.
Right arrow Articles by MURDOCK, L. L.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by SUDLOW, L. C.
Right arrow Articles by MURDOCK, L. L.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?
Journal of Experimental Biology 130,219-234 (1987)
Published by Company of Biologists 1987

Regulation of Labellar and Tarsal Taste Thresholds in the Black Blowfly, Phormia Regina

LELAND C. SUDLOW 1, ROBERT S. EDGECOMB 1, and LARRY L. MURDOCK 1

1 Department of Entomology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA

Regulation of taste thresholds in the blowfly, Phormia regina Meigen, was investigated by manipulating the nutritional status of the insect and determining the effect on labellar and tarsal taste thresholds. Two feeding paradigms were employed: single meals administered to hungry flies, and ad libitum feeding of aqueous sucrose solutions for 4–5 days.

Flies which had fed on aqueous sucrose for several days exhibited high labellar and tarsal thresholds, with tarsal thresholds always higher than labellar thresholds. Food deprivation caused labellar and tarsal thresholds to decline. There was a positive logarithmic relationship between crop mass and labellar or tarsal thresholds. Consumption of single meals of aqueous sucrose caused increases in labellar thresholds similar to those for tarsal thresholds.

Labellar thresholds in flies fed ad libitum were not affected by transection of the recurrent nerve (RN) or the median abdominal nerve (MAN). Tarsal thresholds, in contrast, were markedly attenuated by RN transection but not by MAN transection. Transection of the RN in hungry flies prior to feeding them a single meal did not prevent the normal post-prandial rise in labellar thresholds. In earlier experiments, RN transection has been shown to attenuate the post-prandial rise in tarsal thresholds.

It appears that labellar and tarsal thresholds in the blowfly are similarly affected by consumption of aqueous sucrose. However, inhibitory feedback from the RN, which is partially responsible for elevation of tarsal thresholds after a meal, does not affect labellar thresholds. Additional, still unidentified, factor(s) may regulate both labellar and tarsal thresholds.

Key words: Phormia regina, blowfly, feeding behaviour, recurrent nerve, labellar taste threshold, tarsal taste threshold

Accepted on March 24, 1987


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?




© The Company of Biologists Ltd 1987