Identification of sensilla involved in taste mediation in adult western corn rootworm (Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte)

A group of sensilla present on the maxillary galea of adult western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) beetles has been identified morphologically and physiologically to be involved in taste mediation. There are approximately 15 chemosensory hairs on each galea. Bilateral removal of these structures resulted in a significantly reduced consumption of a strongly phagostimulant triterpenoid, cucurbitacin B, and led to increased ingestion of a phagodeterrent alkaloid, strychnine. Electrophysiological responses obtained via tip-recording of galeal chemosensilla with submillimolar concentrations of host and nonhost plant compounds resulted in dose responses overlapping with the effective behavioral ranges. Cucurbitacin B was found to evoke chemosensory responses at levels as low as 0.1 μM. Since γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is an agonist. (-)-β-hydrastine and strychnine are antagonists, and cucurbitacin B has been proposed to act at a separate modulatory site of classical synaptic GABA and glycine receptor-channel complexes, results reported here raise the possibility that there are peripheral chemosensory receptor sites that may resemble, functionally and structurally, synaptic receptor sites in the central nervous system.