Odor source localization behavior of an insect enhanced by intermittent intake strategy

Abstract

This study investigated odor acquisition strategies to enhance odor plume tracking performance. Efficient odor plume tracking is a crucial ability for organisms, affecting their survival, including for insects with relatively simple nervous systems. Insects can use odor cues to locate food sources or potential mates. Odors released from a source disperse in complex patterns owing to air currents and collisions with objects, making their spread unpredictable. Organisms must therefore engage in active odor acquisition behaviors to effectively gather spatial information from this highly uncertain odor environment. This study focused on odor acquisition via wing flapping in a male silk moth and its relationship with female localization. Given the difficulty of directly intervening in wing flapping, we employed an insect-mounted robotic system to engineer interventions and investigate the relationship between wing-flapping-induced odor acquisition and localization. We found that the difference between air inflow and stoppage in odor attraction was large, and that the odor plume tracking performance was highest at 10 Hz, where odor attraction can be performed at high frequencies. Although constant strong odor acquisition improves localization performance, it increases the likelihood of movement in directions other than that of the odor source. This suggests that periodic wing flapping helps to suppress undesired movements.