Identifying a zapped bug from its smell

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2020-11-25 11:01

International

PHOTO: Leah Good/Unsplash

For some, summer comes with the familiar smell of an insect when it hits a ‘zapper', but researchers say that unique odour could hold insights to help identify the bug. Researchers analysed the molecules of the burnt smell that came from different fruit flies after they got zapped in the name of science. The results revealed the species and sex of the fly with a 95% overall accuracy rate. Such a technique has the potential to be a new tool for pest control and control of insect-borne diseases, they conclude.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

We're all familiar with the smell of an insect when it hits one of the many 'zappers' that are omnipresent in food preparation areas, restaurants. Here, we show that the molecular characteristics of that burned odour is a powerful diagnostic signature that can be analysed in seconds by mass spectrometry, and reveal the species and sex of the source. This has considerable potential as a new tool in entomology, in such areas as pest control and control of insect-borne diseases.

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Journal/
conference: Open Biology

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Liverpool, UK

Funder: The studentship awarded to I.W. was supported by the Low Carbon Eco-Innovatory programme, funded by the European Development Research Fund. Instrumentation was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council grant no.(BB/L014793/1)

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