Abstract Unlike vertebrates the taste receptors of insects are distributed over the mouthparts, body and legs. In insects the sense of taste is used to select and reject food, select appropriate egg-laying sites and to avoid noxious chemicals in the environment. Here we have analysed some of the coding properties of the taste receptors, or basiconic sensilla, on different regions of the legs of locusts and related them to behavioural responses evoked through chemical contact. We analysed the responses of taste receptors to two behaviourally relevant chemicals, sucrose and sodium chloride (NaCl). In response to stimulation with 500 mM NaCl sensory neurones innervating receptors along the dorsal or ventral surfaces of the hind and fore legs progressively produced more spikes towards the tarsus, so that tarsal taste receptors responded at twice the frequency (approx. 20 Hz) of proximal sensilla (approx. 10 Hz). Similarly, 100 mM sucrose applied to distal receptors on the hind and fore legs evoked more spikes than when applied to proximal receptors. Basiconic sensilla tested with a range of NaCl concentrations were more sensitive on the tarsus compared to proximal sites. Behavioural studies showed that the frequency of leg withdrawal movements to droplets of chemicals applied to a leg increased with increasing NaCl and sucrose concentrations. For a given concentration the frequency of withdrawal was greater when it was applied to the tarsus compared to proximal femur. The foreleg was more responsive than the hind leg to NaCl whereas the frequency of withdrawal was similar for sucrose for both legs.