Olfactory Responses of Blowflies to Aliphatic Aldehydes

The response of the blowfly Phormia regina to stimulation by aldehydes in the vapor phase has been studied by means of a specially designed olfactometer. The median rejection threshold and the maximum acceptance threshold were selected as criteria of response. For both acceptance and rejection the distribution of thresholds in the population is normal with respect to the logarithm of concentration. When thresholds are expressed as molar concentrations, the values decrease progressively as chain length is increased. There is no attraction beyond decanal and no rejection beyond dodecanal. When thresholds are expressed as activities, most members of the aldehyde series are approximately equally stimulating at rejection and equally stimulating at acceptance. The relationship is most exact over the middle range of chain lengths. There is a tendency for the terminal members to stimulate at higher activities. These relationships are in close agreement with those which were found earlier to apply to the normal aliphatic alcohols. The similarity between the relative actions of the members of the two series suggests that the relation of equal olfactory stimulation at equal thermodynamic activities by homologous aliphatic compounds at least for homologues of intermediate chain length may be of rather general application in olfaction.