Enantioselectivity of odor perception in honeybees (Apis mellifera carnica)

The authors tested the ability of 60 free-flying honeybees (Apis mellifera carnica) to discriminate a conditioning odor from an array of 26 simultaneously presented substances. The stimuli included 10 pairs of enantiomers and 6 essential oils. The bees (a) significantly distinguished between 98% of the 540 odor pairs tested, thus showing an excellent overall discrimination performance, and (b) were able to discriminate between the optical isomers of limonene, alpha -pinene, beta -citronellol, menthol, and carvone but failed to distinguish between the (+)- and (-)- forms of alpha -terpineol, camphor, rose oxide, fenchone, and 2-butanol. The findings support the assumptions that enantioselective molecular odor receptors may exist only for some volatile enantiomers and that insects and mammals may share common principles of odor quality perception, irrespective of their completely differing repertoires of olfactory receptors.