author's abstract of this paper issi:ed 

 by the bibliographic service, octoblr 2 



A QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF TARSAL SENSITIVITY TO 



SOLUTIONS OF SACCHAROSE, IN THE RED ADMIRAL 



BUTTERFLY, PYRAMEIS ATALANTA LINN. 



DWIGHT E. MINNICH 



Department of Animnl Biology, University of Minnesota 



ONE FIGURE 



CONTENTS 



Introduction 445 



Methods 446 



Results 448 



Conclusions 456 



Bibliography 457 



INTRODUCTION 



It is well known that many insects are extremely sensitive 

 to distance chemical stimulation. The males of certain Lepi- 

 doptera, in particular, exhibit at the time of mating a degree of 

 sensitivity probably unique in the animal kingdom. Thus Riley 

 ('94, p. 39) describes an experiment in which a male of Philo- 

 samia cynthia Drury was successful in seeking out a female a 

 mile and a half away, and Fabre (79-'04), in his classic experi- 

 ments upon several other species of Lepidoptera, reports equally 

 remarkable results. But while we do know something of the 

 degree of olfactory sensitivity possessed by insects, we know 

 absolutely nothing concerning their acuity of taste or contact 

 chemoreception. This is due to the fact that the only organs 

 of taste heretofore described were located on the mouth parts or 

 within the buccal cavity, where experimentation was virtually 

 impossible. 



Recently, however, I have shown (Minnich, '21) that the 

 nymphalid butterflies, Vanessa antiopa Linn, and Pyrameis 

 atalanta Linn., possess taste organs or contact chemo-recep- 

 tors on their ambulatory tarsi. In a more detailed study of 



445 



