olfactometer

To investigate, the scientists placed samples of favored and nonfavored soils at the end of a Y-junction olfactometer in which each arm was scented by a different dirt.

In the field, he employs an olfactometer with an aggressive brand name: Nasal Ranger.

A typical week for Mike McGinley, who works at St. Croix Sensory, his family’s business, involves odor-testing kitty litter and training environmental-protection officers in the correct use of the Nasal Ranger, a nose-mounted, megaphone-shaped “field olfactometer” invented by his father to measure smell.

To figure out how ladybugs overcome this challenge, scientists collected ladybugs, ants, scale insects, and phorid flies from an organic coffee plantation in Mexico and placed them in an olfactometer, an instrument that measures odors.

To test this suspicion, the team devised an aroma-based experimental set-up called an olfactometer.