Insect bites and stings Insect bites and stings Insect bites and stings occur when an insect is agitated and seeks to defend itself through its natural defense mechanisms, or when an insect seeks to feed off the bitten person. Some insects inject formic acid, which can cause an immediate skin reaction often resulting in redness and swelling in the injured area. Stings from fire ants, bees, wasps and hornets are usually painful, and may stimulate a dangerous allergic reaction called anaphylaxis for at-risk patients, and some wasps can also have a powerful bite along with a sting. Bites from mosquitoes and fleas are more
Insect olfaction study has demonstrated the olfactory role of ovipositor in fig wasps. Inside of these olfactory organs there are neurons called olfactory receptor neurons which, as the name implies, house receptors for scent molecules in their cell membrane.The majority of olfactory receptor neurons typically reside in the antenna. These neurons can be very abundant, for example Drosophila flies have 2,600 olfactory sensory neurons. Insects are capable of smelling and differentiating between thousands of volatile compounds both sensitively and selectively. Sensitively is how attune the insect is to very small amounts of an odorant or small changes in the concentration of an