There is good evidence of much higher sensitivity to certain compounds
in honey bees compared to humans and other animals. Some are probably
biologically relevant, as in floral scents, or Nasanov or alarm
pheromone. I think I remember some early studies showing 100 fold
difference in sensitivity to some of the compounds of the Nasanov
glands compared to humans. And then there is Jerry's findings of high
sensitivity to the non biologically relevant TNT....
Wouldn't it be something if foragers besides using a visual landscape
to navigate they are actually using an odor landscape? Some of Adrian
Wenners experiments suggest that possibility. A good number of years
ago an intrepid group of researchers found that pit vipers (maybe the
dreaded fer de lance) sort of coopt the visual cortex at night to
generate equivalent images of the temp profiles detected by their
infrared pit detectors.
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