Setiferous Plaques on Antennal Pedicels of Muscoid Diptera: Appearance in Various Species and Tests of Function2

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Abstract
The antennal pedicel of the green bottle fly Phoenicia sericata (Meigen) possesses a dozen or so plaques, each surmounted by a bulbous seta and containing a tuft of microsetae. Twenty-nine muscoid species and one drosophilid have been studied with the scanning electron microscope to ascertain the presence or absence of these structures, interspecific differences, and intraspecific variation. Green bottle flies with Vaseline™ -coated pedicels behaved like controls in response to 5% acetic acid, 0.1% trimethylamine, or 0.1% indole in T-tube preference tests. Treated house flies, Musca domestica L., responded like controls to 3 concentrations of ammonia. Virgin, treated green bottle flies of either sex responded like controls when virgin flies of either sex were used as the attractant. These results suggest that the structures on the pedicel do not have an olfactory function.

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