Morphological characterization of the antennal lobes in the XXXX @entity19428 .

@entity19428 @entity1315
UNASSIGNED: The medfly @entity19428 is one of the most important pests for horticulture worldwide. The knowledge about anatomy and function of the medfly olfactory system is still limited. The first brain structure to process olfactory information in insects is the @entity1315 ( @entity1315 ), which is composed of its functional and morphological units, the olfactory glomeruli. Here, we present a morphological three-dimensional reconstruction of @entity1315 glomeruli in adult brains. We used unilateral antennal backfills of olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) with neural tracers, revealing the @entity1315 structure. We recorded confocal stacks acquired from whole-mount specimens, and analyzed them with the software AMIRA. The ALs in @entity19428 are organized in glomeruli which are more tightly packed in the anterior part than the posterior one. Axons of ORNs bilaterally connect the ALs through a commissure between the two ALs. This commissure is formed by several distinct fascicles. Contralateral dye transfer suggests the presence of gap junctions connecting ORNs from both antennae. There was no statistical difference between the average volumes of female ALs (204,166      12,554   m(3)) and of male ALs (190,287      11,823   m(3)). In most specimens, we counted 53 glomeruli in each @entity1315 , seven of which were sexually dimorphic in size.
