The Limiting Mechanism in Tarsal Chemoreception

Rejection thresholds of eight primary alcohols applied to the tarsal chemoreceptors of the blowfly Phormia regina Meigen and the ovipositor of Gryllus assimilis Fab. have been determined. Three different solvents for the alcohols have been used: water, ethylene glycol, and mineral oil. The comparative stimulating effectiveness of the alcohols assumes a different aspect with each different solvent. In oil the range of thresholds from methanol to octanol extends over less than one log unit as compared with the corresponding thresholds in water which extend over four log units. In glycol the thresholds extend over two and one half log units only. When water is employed as a solvent, the line which describes the relationship between threshold concentration and chain length of the compound exhibits a sharp break at or near butanol. No such discontinuity is evident when glycol or oil is employed as solvent. This is offered as evidence supporting the hypothesis that the limiting mechanism in tarsal chemoreception involves a two phase system whereby highly water-soluble compounds gain access to the receptor through an aqueous phase and the larger lipoid-soluble molecules chiefly through a lipoid phase. Additional facts which support this idea are gained from data which show that the inflection in the curve occurs at different points with different species of insects and is conspicuously absent in the case of man. When thresholds in aqueous solutions are converted from molar concentrations to activities, it is clear that the relation of equal physiological effect at equal thermodynamic activities does not apply here. The lower members of the series stimulate at progressively increasing activities up to pentanol and then at progressively decreasing activities. Furthermore, the ratio of water threshold to oil threshold exhibits no obvious agreement with the water/oil partition coefficients determined experimentally. These results indicate either that the limiting process of chemoreception in these insects does not depend upon the establishment of an equilibrium or that some kinetic effect is obscuring an underlying relationship which does so depend.