Acta Entomologica Sinica ›› 2023, Vol. 66 ›› Issue (7): 978-991.doi: 10.16380/j.kcxb.2023.07.012

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Insect odorscape: From odor diffusion to pest control

JIAO Long, TAN Rong-Rong, CHEN Xun, WANG Hong-Juan, HUANG Dan-Juan, MAO Ying-Xin*   

  1.  (Key Laboratory of Tea Resources Comprehensive Utilization (Coconstruction by Ministry and Province), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Fruit and Tea Research Institute, Hubei Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430070, China)
  • Online:2023-07-20 Published:2023-08-17

Abstract: The collective set of odors received by insects is called as insect odorscape. Insects rely on the reception and discrimination of the odorscape to complete life activities, such as the object localization, feeding, mating and oviposition. The behavior of insects can be manipulated by odorscape management for pest control strategy. In this article, we reviewed the research progress in the composition and diffusion of insect odorscape, influences of odorscape on insect behavior, factors affecting odorscape, odorscape reception and discrimination of insects, and the application of odorscape management in pest control. Finally, we analyzed and prospected the development direction and research focus of insect odorscape management in the future. For insects, the odor released by target is dispersed into plumes by air flow and mixed with the background odor carried in the air, which together form the odorscape. Insects search and locate the target along the target odor. The behavior of insects can be affected by the shape, composition and concentration of target odors. The background odor plays a complementary or warning role during the target localization of insects. Different background odors can synergize or interfere with the target localization of insects. The insect odorscape is mainly affected by the temperature, humidity, light, heavy metal elements and plant diseases and insect pests in the environment. Studies showed that the olfactory receptors of insects capture odorscape and transmit those odor signals to olfactory nerve centers such as antennal sensilla lobe along the olfactory nerves. Then, the odorscape is analyzed in the nerve centers by the mode of elemental processing or configural processing. The influences of background odor on insect target localization may be the results of the reciprocal addition, competitive binding or signal crosstalk of different odor molecules during the olfactory sensing and coding. At present, several kinds of green pest control technologies have been developed based on the odorscape management, such as insect behavior regulators, exogenous elicitors, breeding the crop varieties that can release resistant volatiles, “push-pull” technology and plant-mediated support system for natural enemies. In the future, it is necessary to further explore the behavioral, electrophysiological and neurological mechanisms of odorscape discrimination in insects, and optimize and integrate the green control technologies related to odorscape management, so as to build rational and efficient odorscape for insect pest control.

Key words: Insects, odorscape, odor diffusion, olfactory behavior, odor reception, odor discrimination, volatiles, green control