Ants have four to five times more odor receptors than most
other insects, a team of researchers have discovered.
The research team, led by Lawrence Zwiebel at Vanderbilt,
recently completed the first first full map of olfactory system that provides
ants with their sense of taste and smell. They found the industrious insects
have genes that make about 400 distinct odorant receptors, special proteins
that detect different odors. By comparison, silk moths have 52, fruit flies
have 61, mosquitoes range from 74 to 158 and the honeybee has 174.