In this study, we evaluated the possible role of Ligia italica as a bioindicator for the monitoring of heavy metals pollution in the suppralittoral zone of marine rocky coasts. Between 2004 and 2011 specimens of L. italica were collected along the Eastern Sicilian coasts from sites known for their high pollution levels as they are near to an area where in September 2001 a refinery plant dischar...

The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster responds behaviorally to sound, gravity, and wind. Johnston's organ (JO) at the antennal base serves as a sensory organ in the fruit fly to detect these mechanosensory stimuli. Among the five anatomically defined subgroups of sensory neurons in JO, subgroups A and B detect sound vibrations and subgroups C and E respond to static deflections, such as gravity...

Insects use feedback from a variety of sensory modalities, including mechanoreceptors on their antennae, to stabilize the direction and speed of flight. Like all arthropod appendages, antennae not only supply sensory information but may also be actively positioned by control muscles. However, how flying insects move their antennae during active turns and how such movements might influence steer...

This study was conducted to investigate effects of brain-derived neurotrophic factor on the neurite growth and the survival rate of antennal lobe neurons in vitro, and secretion of brain-derived neurotrophic factor-like neuropeptide from brain into hemolymph in the silk moth, Bombyx mori. In primary culture of antennal lobe neurons with brain-derived neurotrophic factor, it promoted both a neur...

Olfactory responses require the representation of high-dimensional olfactory stimuli within the constraints of two-dimensional neural networks. We used a computational model of the honeybee antennal lobe to test how inhibitory interactions in the antennal lobe should be organized to best reproduce the experimentally measured input-output function in this structure. Our simulations show that a f...

Male antennal aphrodisiac pheromones have been suggested to elicit female receptiveness in several parasitic Hymenoptera, including Leptopilina boulardi. None of the proposed pheromones, however, has been fully identified to date. It is also unknown whether these antennal pheromones are species specific, because the species specificity of mate recognition and courtship elicitation in Leptopilin...

Spatiotemporal odour coding is thought to be linked closely with the specific glomerular anatomy of the primary olfactory centre. In most insects the number of the glomeruli within the antennal lobe is limited to fewer than 100, allowing their individual identification. In the grapevine moth, Lobesia botrana, a map of the antennal lobe glomeruli was reconstructed three-dimensionally, by compari...

Major advances have been made during the past two years in understanding how honeybees process olfactory input at the level of their first brain structure dealing with odours, the antennal lobe (the insect analogue of the mammalian olfactory bulb). It is now possible to map physiological responses to morphologically identified olfactory glomeruli, allowing for the creation of a functional atlas...

Insects carry a pair of actively movable feelers that supply the animal with a range of multimodal information. The antennae of the stick insect Carausius morosus are straight and of nearly the same length as the legs, making them ideal probes for near-range exploration. Indeed, stick insects, like many other insects, use antennal contact information for the adaptive control of locomotion, for ...

Introduction: Dental panoramic radiography (DPR) is one of the most frequent diagnostic X-ray procedures, the application of which is currently on a growing trend. During DPR, several radiosensitive tissues, such as the lens of the eyes, parotid gland, and thyroid gland, contribute to the radiation field, and it is necessary to monitor their received dose. The aim of t...