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Insect senses

All living creatures must have sensory organs that receive information about the outside world, and a nervous system, which can convey the data to be translated into appropriate behaviour. The senses on which insects rely are very much the same, as we know them from ourselves. This means sense of touch, hearing, vision, heat and cold and chemical senses such as smell and taste.

The sense of touch is tied to different kinds of hair. When hair is moved, a sensing cell is aroused and sends messages to the central nervous system. The sense of hearing can also be tied to hair that is so sensitive that they can be moved by acoustic waves, but there are also insects that have developed actual eardrums. Insect eyes and perception differs in many ways from ours. The insect eye is divided into many – often thousands – small facets. Each facet is a tiny lens that sits at the end of a tubular eye. Each of these eyes forms, on the retina, an image of the small part of the surroundings, which it is now targeting. With that construction, the insect eye cannot focus on a single object, and the insect image of the surroundings is very much like a mosaic. The insect eye is suited to perceive changes in the visual field, thing that moves, for example, a prey or a predator. In addition to the large compound eyes, many insects have small, dot-like eyes on top of their heads. Much suggests that they act as a kind of built-in light meter, which somehow regulates the light sensitivity of the big eyes. Insect eyes are not equipped with an iris diaphragm, such as our own eyes are.

Many insects can distinguish between different colours. For example, experiments have shown that house flies prefer dark red and black colours, and that fact is used in several types of fly traps. We also know that the sensitivity of insect eyes is staggered compared to the frequency range that we see. Most insects do not react to long wave light, which is red to the human eye. However, most insect eyes perceive the short-wave ultraviolet light that we do not see. Many insects are sensitive to ultraviolet light and are attracted to it more than to other wavelengths of light. This is used in certain light traps. Insects seek towards light because light usually means a way out. For this same reason it is common to find adult drugstore beetles in windows.

We have not yet been able to locate the cold and heat senses to special sense organs, so it is probably through a process in the insect brain that they are kept informed of the temperature.

The chemical senses are extremely well developed in many insects. The main biological significance of the sense of smell is that it makes it possible for the insects to distinguish between hazardous and favourable things at a distance. The sense of smell is tied to tiny hairs that sit on their antennae. These hairs are designed like a sieve with tiny holes that allow the fragrance substance molecules to penetrate. Inside hollow hairs are the fragrances associated with sensory cells that convert the chemical signal into electrical impulses. The sense of taste is also tied to hair, which in principle work like the hairs tied to smell. They are particularly located around the insect mouth, but can also be part of the feet which for example makes a fly able to taste whatever it is standing on.

  • About
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Henri Mourier
Biologist at Statens Skadedyrslaboratorium
Author of:
"Pests in House and Home"
"Bed Bugs - Bites, Stings and Itches"
"Food Pests"
"Husets dyreliv" (Insects Around the House - Only danish)
"Skadedyr i træ" (Timber Pests - Only danish)
"Stuefluen" (Common Housefly - Only danish)
Latest posts by Henri Mourier (see all)
    Food Pests
    Introduction
    An old problem
    Competition for food
    Pests can ruin stored goods
    Why not just eat the insects
    Some insects are unhealthy to eat
    Allergy to pests
    Transmission of infectious diseases
    Where do pests come from?
    Synanthrope species
    (1) The house dust mite and the sugar mite
    (2) The firebrat and the silverfish
    (3) The German cockroach and the forest cockroach
    (4) The rust-red flour beetle and the confused flour beetle
    (5) The merchant grain beetle and the saw-toothed grain beetle
    (6) The cigarette beetle and the drugstore beetle
    (7) The rice weevil and the granary weevil
    (8) The pharaoh ant and the common black ant
    History of the dark flour beetle
    Pests in bird’s nests
    Mould fauna
    The Look and Behaviour of pests
    Insect appearance
    Internal
    Insect development
    Insect senses
    Behaviour
    Water and Moisture
    Temperature
    What insects live off and live in
    The Air
    Mites
    Bug Indentification
    The various species
    Mites
    The flour mite
    The sugar mite
    The common house mite
    The Lardoglyphus zacheri
    The prune mite
    The cheese mite
    The house dust mite
    The Cheyletus eruditus
    Silverfish
    The Silverfish
    The firebrat
    Cockroaches
    The German cockroach
    The Oriental cockroach
    The brown-banded cockroach
    The American cockroach
    The extermination of cockroaches
    Crickets
    Earwigs
    Booklice
    Butterflies
    The Mediterranean flour moth
    The warehouse moth
    Tropical warehouse moth
    The brown house moth
    The Indian meal moth
    Grain beetles
    The saw-toothed grain beetle
    The merchant grain beetle
    The rust-red grain beetle
    Flour beetles
    The yellow mealworm beetle
    The lesser mealworm beetle
    The dark flour beetle
    The confused flour beetle
    The rust-red flour beetle
    The bolting cloth beetle
    Furniture beetles
    The drugstore beetle
    The cigarette beetle
    Bostrychidae
    The lesser grain borer
    True weevils snout beetles
    The granary weevil
    The rice weevil
    The corn weevil
    Bean weevils
    The common bean weevil
    The coffee bean weevil
    Skin beetles
    The bacon beetle
    The dermestid beetle
    The leather beetle
    The khapra beetle
    The reesa vespulae
    Chequered beetles
    The red-legged ham beetle
    The red-breasted copra beetle
    The black-legged ham beetle
    Spider beetles
    The Australian spider beetle
    The white-marked spider beetle
    The golden spider beetle
    The smooth spider beetle
    Plaster beetles
    Flies
    The common house fly
    The lesser house fly
    Blowflies
    The grey flesh fly
    The cheese skipper
    Fruit flies
    Hymenoptera
    The common black ant
    The pharaoh ant
    Wasps
    Birds
    The domestic pigeon
    The house sparrow
    Prevention and control of birds
    Rodents
    The house mouse
    The yellow-necked mouse
    Mouse prevention
    Mouse control
    The brown rat
    The black rat
    Rat prevention
    Rat control
    Imaginary pests
    Niches of food pests
    A: The Waste Niche
    B: The seed niche
    C: The dead plant niche
    D: The sugary excrement niche
    E: The carrion niche
    Prevention and Control, Integrated Control
    A. Inspection of the company and its environment
    The environment
    The premises
    Examination of raw materials and food on site
    Sampling
    Laboratory methods for detection of pests in food
    B. Statement of the problem
    C. Prevention and control
    1. Proper organisation of the company
    2. Proper operation
    3. Exclusion, proofing buildings
    4. Packaging
    5. Non-chemical control measures
    6. Chemical control
    D: Effective monitoring and communication
    Practical information
    Index

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