The Determination of the Acceptance Threshold for Sucrose with Achatina Fulica

Abstract

Many organisms use sensitivity to the chemical con­ stituents of the environment to detect food, to orient themselves in feeding and ingesting foods, and to avoid chemically unfavorable environments. Survival depends largely on being able to detect unfavorable conditions and accepting or rejecting them. In the recent hospital salt-sugar mix-up (Young, 1962), babies were fed formulas made with salt rather than sugar. The babies exhibited rejection tendencies, but were force-fed. As a result six babies died. In the realm of pests, any acceptance or re­ jection study has some importance, especially since attract­ ants and repellents are used against these pests. This ex­periment began as a study of attractants and repellents and narrowed down to threshold studies. The purpose of this project became to determine the acceptance threshold for sucrose of Achatina fulica.