Insects possess sophisticated mechanisms to detect and respond to their chemosensory environment. The ancient diversification of insects has provided them with opportunities to develop novel solutions to environmental challenges and pressures. Insect olfactory systems have provided valuable insights into the general principles that govern chemosensation and neural processing while revealing molecular targets to manipulate insect behavior. Studies using Drosophila have discovered molecular, genetic, and cellular mechanisms that permit a high degree of olfactory acuity with a limited set of olfactory receptors. Despite their independent evolutionary histories, the insect olfactory system shares an intriguing structural similarity with the vertebrate olfactory system. Understanding how odor coding becomes decision making in the insect brain will likely provide interesting parallels with vertebrate cognition.
