Can dragonflies smell?
I dig dragonflies. They have gorgeous colors and they just look awesome. Did you know that their 30,000 lens eyes can also detect ultraviolet light? Because dragonflies and their cousins damselflies don’t have glomeruli, it was thought that they can’t smell. Glomeruli are a cluster of nerve endings near the surface of the olfactory bulb (which is responsible for olfaction, aka smelling) in the brain. I’ve got a cool MRI of a rabbit brain that shows how big the olfactory bulbs are in a rabbit. I should dig that up. Back to the dragonfly, it was recently discovered that they have tiny bulbs in pits on their antennae that may be related to smell. As if dragonflies smelling from their antennae isn’t cool enough, these pits were found using an electron microscope. To test their theory, they used a wind tunnel and dragonfly bait, aka fruit flies. You can read more here:
Dragonflies Lack ‘Smell Center,’ but Can Still Smell
Sorry the article is behind a paywall.
First evidence of the use of olfaction in Odonata behaviour.
Piersanti S, Frati F, Conti E, Gaino E, Rebora M, Salerno G.
J Insect Physiol. 2014 Mar;62:26-31. doi: 10.1016/j.jinsphys.2014.01.006. Epub 2014 Jan 28.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24486162
Read more about human smell here:
Smell some science
Cool stuff:
Dragonflies ✔
Wind tunnel ✔
Electron microscope ✔
Science ✔
A big h/t to mary Zeman for the wonderful photos.
#ScienceSunday
Originally shared by mary Zeman
March 23, 2014
Thanks so much Chad!!! what a neat abstract!
March 23, 2014
Thanks for the great photos mary Zeman. I hope it warms up so you can get out with your camera.
March 23, 2014
Great information. also great picture.
March 23, 2014
Chad Haney me too- I’m itching to get out there and see Spring!
March 23, 2014
Glad you like it marcia robinson
mary Zeman I bet Beau and K-girl are looking forward to warmer weather too.
March 23, 2014
Very cool!
March 23, 2014
Chad Haney definitely. Yesterday is was beautiful, and Beau loved his longer walk! but snow is coming one more time.
March 23, 2014
It is very cool, thanks Brigitte W.
mary Zeman it snowed again today. Argh. However, I’ve been able to walk Ana to her favorite rabbit “meeting” places. Most of the winter had too much salt on that route and she gets ice at the top of her boots. We gave up on the boots because she likes to go into the deep snow.
March 23, 2014
Chad Haney , just a crazy thought, is there an MRI of the dragonfly?
March 23, 2014
Nikolai Varankine unlikely. You would have to figure out how to keep it from moving. X-ray computed tomography would be cool to look at their exoskeleton. A dead dragonfly would likely be too dry to work in MRI, unless one was lucky to find one that just died.
March 23, 2014
Dragonflies, however, are deaf. Both dragonflies and butterflies.
March 23, 2014
Even more amazing, thanks Cindy Brown
March 23, 2014
That is cool. I learned something new today. Thanks!
March 23, 2014
It’s also possible that a scientist said, I wonder what a dragonfly antenna looks like in an electron microscope.
March 23, 2014
Glad you learned something John Enfield
March 23, 2014
Great post! And now I eagerly await the rabbit brain MRI follow-up 😉
March 23, 2014
I’ll have to remember to take it home to work on, Carissa Braun
March 23, 2014
Not sure about you, but remembering is often the hardest part for me Chad Haney! I’m easily distracted…
March 23, 2014
You are too busy identifying random trees, Carissa Braun
March 23, 2014
Yep. Easily distracted Chad Haney 🙂
March 23, 2014
squirrel !
March 24, 2014
I love dragonflies. ..seeing them grounded by the heavy morning due on the tall prairie glass. ….hundreds & thousands of blue, brown, green and color combinations of dragonflies. ..I would pick them up by the base of the wings…if by their flexible tail..they would bite hard…my daughters when young… we caught a small tadpole approximately 1/2nd times larger then a dragonfly nymph….and it ate the tadpoles!;-)
March 24, 2014
in the vietnam, dragonfly cans look like animals predict the weather 🙂