Gustatory sensing mechanism coding for oviposition stimulants in the Papilionidae

凤蝶科的蝴蝶，通常被称为燕尾蝴蝶，以萝卜科的叶子为食和产卵。被称为产卵刺激剂的植物化学化合物，刺激产卵是触发产卵行为的最重要因素。雌虫通过前腿上的化学感受器将产卵刺激物视为味觉，以确定一种植物是否适合幼虫取食。有趣的是，这些刺激物在作为单一化合物时没有产卵活性，它们需要以混合物的形式出现来诱导产卵行为。在这里，我们试图通过电生理观察和产卵行为分析来解释为什么这些化合物需要以混合物的形式呈现。我们的数据表明，位于感受器内的离散的味觉细胞(GRN)的所有三个棘波的放电对于诱导蝶科3种蝴蝶的产卵行为是必不可少的。

Butterflies of family Papilionidae, generally called the swallowtail butterfly, feeds and lays eggs on the leaves of the Rutaceae family. Phytochemical compounds, called oviposition stimulants, stimulating oviposition are the most important factor for triggering the oviposition behavior. Females perceive oviposition stimulants as tastants through their chemosensilla on the foreleg tarsomere to determine if a plant is suitable for larval feeding. Interestingly, these stimulants show no oviposition activity when assayed as single compounds, and they need to be presented as a mixture for eliciting the oviposition behavior.Here we attempted to elucidate why these compounds need to be presented as a mixture, using electrophysiological observations and oviposition behavioral assays. Our data suggests the firing of all three spikes in the discrete GRNs (taste cells) housed into the sensilla is essential for inducing oviposition behavior in 3 butterfly species of family Papilionidae.