Sugar receptor response of the food-canal taste sensilla in a nectar-feeding swallowtail butterfly, Papilio xuthus

The feeding behavior in nectar-feeding insects is triggered by a sugar-receptor response in contact chemosensilla. The contact chemosensilla are distributed not only on tarsi and the outside of the proboscis but also on the inside of the food canal in Lepidoptera. Although the chemosensilla inside t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Die Naturwissenschaften 2009-03, Vol.96 (3), p.355-363
Main Authors: Inoue, Takashi A, Asaoka, Kiyoshi, Seta, Kazuaki, Imaeda, Daisuke, Ozaki, Mamiko
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Behavior, Animal
Biomedical and Life Sciences
butterflies
Butterflies - growth & development
Butterflies - physiology
Chemoreceptor Cells - physiology
Chemoreceptor Cells - ultrastructure
Competitive inhibition
Electrophysiology
Environment
Feeding Behavior - physiology
Female
Food-canal sensillum
Lepidoptera
Life Sciences
Microscopy, Electron
Microscopy, Electron, Scanning
Nectar sucking
Original Paper
Oviposition - physiology
Papilio xuthus
Papilionidae
Potassium Chloride - pharmacology
Receptors, Cell Surface - physiology
Sensory Thresholds - physiology
Starch - pharmacology
Sucrose - metabolism
Taste - physiology
Taste response
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Summary:The feeding behavior in nectar-feeding insects is triggered by a sugar-receptor response in contact chemosensilla. The contact chemosensilla are distributed not only on tarsi and the outside of the proboscis but also on the inside of the food canal in Lepidoptera. Although the chemosensilla inside the food canal are assumed to detect sweet taste during the passage of nectar through the food canal, their electrophysiological function has received little attention. In the nectar-feeding Asian swallowtail butterfly, Papilio xuthus (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae), we found 15- to 30-μm-long sensilla neatly lined up along the inside galea wall, which forms the food canal in the proboscis. The receptor neurons of these sensilla responded to sucrose. We hypothesized that starch and sucrose compete with each other for a taste receptor site on the sensilla. When we added starch and sucrose to the food-canal sensilla, the electrophysiological responses of food-canal sensilla were inhibited in parallel with the food-sucking behavior of the butterflies. These results suggest that the food-canal sensilla are involved in the behavioral control of nectar-sucking in this butterfly species.
ISSN:0028-1042
1432-1904
DOI:10.1007/s00114-008-0483-8