Applications of researches into olfactory biology

Abstract

If ecological research has any final goal towards which it is reaching, that goal must concern the quality of the natural environment and man’s place in it. More specifically, it embraces man’s problems and difficulties in raising more crops from ecosystems continuously striving to change, and in keeping those crops free from debilitating pest infestations. Such goals are an extension of those reached for in many areas of biological research and which concern the physiological and behavioural functioning of single individuals or defined social groups. To suggest that studies in olfactory biology have progressed to the point where their findings can be applied to the field and can be shown to take us nearer to that goal would not be as true for vertebrate animals as it is for invertebrates. Since about 1964, when insect sex attractant pheromones were first identified and synthesized, olfactory biology has played an escalating role in the formulation of pest control programmes. Sex pheromone traps are now used in control measures against many insect pests worldwide with encouraging results. In the United States alone the cotton bollweevil, Anthonomus grandis, is estimated to depress the value of cotton production by $300 million annually. One-third of all insecticides used in the U.S.A. for agricultural purposes, and costing $70 million annually, is used in the battle against the weevil. The synthetic sex pheromone, called ‘grandlure’ after the specific name of the weevil, is now one of the most promising pheromones being used in the detection, supression and control of any insect species.