ArticleCommunicative & integrative biology2013
How useful are olfactometer experiments in chemical ecology research?
Article in Communicative & integrative biology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The potential of essential oils as mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) bio-repellents: a systematic review.Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de Sao Paulo · 2026Pooled it
- Indirect plant defense may provide economically important pest suppression in sorghum.Pest management science · 2025Article
- Volatiles fromBiological control : theory and applications in pest management · 2019Article
- Tobacco Growth Promotion by the Entomopathogenic Fungus,Mycobiology · 2019Article
- Calling from distance: attraction of soil bacteria by plant root volatiles.The ISME journal · 2018Article
- Microbial Volatiles: Small Molecules with an Important Role in Intra- and Inter-Kingdom Interactions.Frontiers in microbiology · 2017Review
- Innate and Learned Olfactory Responses in a Wild Population of the Egg Parasitoid Trichogramma (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae).Journal of insect science (Online) · 2016Article
- Protection via parasitism: Datura odors attract parasitoid flies, which inhibit Manduca larvae from feeding and growing but may not help plants.Oecologia · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Olfactometer experiments, in which arthropods are given the choice between two or more odor sources to test behavioral preferences, are commonly used in chemical ecology research. Results of such often lead to conclusions on behavior in an ecologically relevant setting. However, it is widely unknown how well these experiments reflect actual behavior in nature. Recently, we used natural insect herbivores of wild lima bean plants to evaluate their behavior in Y-tube olfactometer experiments compared with feeding experiments. We demonstrated that depending on volatile concentration, insect sex significantly determined preference, and that independent of sex, the actual feeding choice of insects depended on defensive short-distance cues, which did not correlate with volatile cues emitted by the plants. Thus, our study shows that olfactory decisions do not reflect actual feeding choice and that olfactometer experiments may only provide a limited and simplified picture of actual decision making by insects.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.