Perception of plant volatile blends by herbivorous insects - Finding the right mix

► Plant volatiles provide host recognition cues to insects. ► The olfactory system gives fine scale spatio-temporal resolution of these signals. ► Olfactory receptor neurons have high sensitivity and specificity to volatiles at physiologically relevant concentrations. ► Behavioural activity depends on perception of blends. ► Blends can elicit different behavioural responses compared to individual compounds.