SOLF System for data acquisition in olfactometry bioassays

Olfactometry bioassays are useful for studying the behavioral responses of insects to volatiles of different sources: host or non-host plants, other insects or to synthetic blends. Data collection must reflect the insect behavior as it is affected by the sources of odor. The software SOLF (System for data acquisition in olfactometry bioassays) was developed at Vegetal Ecophysiology Laboratory – “Embrapa Mandioca e Fruticultura” as a demand of a project titled “Biological control and alternative technologies for the management of the citrus psyllid”, part of the research activities inserted in an arrangement of Embrapa focused at the Huanglongbing citrus management. This software is applied to collect and manage the results obtained in olfactometry bioassays conducted with Diaphorina citri Kuwayama and also with other insect species. The routine of SOLF was developed in Visual Basic for Application (VBA) language version 7.0. The excel spreadsheet interacts with VBA in order to recognize and record each numeric keyboard typed. As response variables, the software provides information on residence time and number of entries. Before the implementation of SOLF, data collection in olfactometry bioassays was manually transcript in lab notebooks. The main benefits of SOLF are the automatization and optimization of data acquisition process during the olfactometry bioassays, which turns the acquisition of data faster, more efficient and less subject to error, leading to a better control of the process.