Post by irisscientist on Jan 29, 2015 3:14:05 GMT -8
Dear all,
I have recently designed and commissioned the construction a butterfly sized Y-tube olfactometer. As you can see from the images (below), construction of the equipment is now complete and I can’t wait to start using this on my specimens (due to eclose early summer, 2015) and hopefully finally confirm the attraction compound of male Apatura’s.
Although I have looked through many papers/paper abstracts (online) and am unable to see such a piece of equipment having been used on any other butterfly specimens? If anybody is able to correct me on this, please do so. Such equipment is and has commonly been used on many other insect species (beetles, bee’s, wasps, flies, aphids etc), but the closest to butterflies that I am able to find is the paper in the link (below):
www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1603/0022-0493-97.4.1365
In this particular paper the equipment was used on the Diamondback Moth (Plutella xylostella). Assuming that things go as planned, I’d subsequently like to follow up these initial experiments using other butterfly species, which are likewise attracted to similar compounds to the Apatura’s (such as Nymphalis antiopa). I have also posted some recent (i.e. new) data, relevant to the Apatura attractant in another thread on the Open Topic’s Forum ("Many thanks to the toad!").
For those who are unfamiliar with the equipment however I have also posted a schematic (below) of the equipment set-up, which I found online (through google-images). Basically purified air is pumped in to one of the arms of the olfactometer, via a chamber containing a specified test compound. In the other arm, only purified air is supplied. If the insect is ‘attracted’ to the compound being tested, it will travel down the single barrel until it reaches the choice ‘Y’ and subsequently select the arm containing the ‘attractant’. In order to aid air flow, a suction outlet is also provided upstream of the insect start position. Confirmation of an attraction property is provided by test repetition and statistically calculated accordingly.
I hope this is interest to some of you? I will (of course), post any relevant data obtained from these experiments at a later date.
Mark
I have recently designed and commissioned the construction a butterfly sized Y-tube olfactometer. As you can see from the images (below), construction of the equipment is now complete and I can’t wait to start using this on my specimens (due to eclose early summer, 2015) and hopefully finally confirm the attraction compound of male Apatura’s.
Although I have looked through many papers/paper abstracts (online) and am unable to see such a piece of equipment having been used on any other butterfly specimens? If anybody is able to correct me on this, please do so. Such equipment is and has commonly been used on many other insect species (beetles, bee’s, wasps, flies, aphids etc), but the closest to butterflies that I am able to find is the paper in the link (below):
www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1603/0022-0493-97.4.1365
In this particular paper the equipment was used on the Diamondback Moth (Plutella xylostella). Assuming that things go as planned, I’d subsequently like to follow up these initial experiments using other butterfly species, which are likewise attracted to similar compounds to the Apatura’s (such as Nymphalis antiopa). I have also posted some recent (i.e. new) data, relevant to the Apatura attractant in another thread on the Open Topic’s Forum ("Many thanks to the toad!").
For those who are unfamiliar with the equipment however I have also posted a schematic (below) of the equipment set-up, which I found online (through google-images). Basically purified air is pumped in to one of the arms of the olfactometer, via a chamber containing a specified test compound. In the other arm, only purified air is supplied. If the insect is ‘attracted’ to the compound being tested, it will travel down the single barrel until it reaches the choice ‘Y’ and subsequently select the arm containing the ‘attractant’. In order to aid air flow, a suction outlet is also provided upstream of the insect start position. Confirmation of an attraction property is provided by test repetition and statistically calculated accordingly.
I hope this is interest to some of you? I will (of course), post any relevant data obtained from these experiments at a later date.
Mark
