Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T07:40:47.676Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Observations on the effects of carotene on the growth and pigmentation of locusts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

R. H. Dadd
R. H. Dadd
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology and Applied Entomology, Imperial College of Science and Technology.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

A method of obtaining locust eggs which could be expected to be deficient in carotene is described. It involved rearing a parental generation on an artificial diet which, because of certain pigmentation abnormalities it induced, was probably itself deficient in carotene.

Using crowded hatchlings of Locusta migratoria (L.) from eggs thus modified, it was shown that they were sensitive to dietary carotene, whereas hatchlings from normal eggs were indifferent. The absence of carotene was marked by inferior growth, lessened activity and most notably by an extremely different coloration in both hoppers and adults. Without carotene, melanisation was absent or greatly reduced and in many cases the integument developed a greenish-blue colour. With carotene, heavy melanisation occurred in the hoppers, and the colour of the adults was characteristically gregarious.

It was concluded that in normal eggs the amount of carotene present is usually sufficient to mask the expression of a dietary deficiency during nymphal growth, but that with normal eggs having low amounts of carotene, a dietary deficiency might become apparent as it did with modified eggs.

It is suggested that the blue colour of modified Locusta hoppers reared without carotene is due to mesobiliverdin, a prochromogen of insectoverdin, the green pigment of the solitaria phase of locusts. Insectoverdin itself could not be formed because it contains carotenoids, and these were absent from the diet. The effect of extreme deprivation of carotene is therefore to induce solitaroid tendencies, notably in regard to colour (suppression of melanin and production of mesobiliverdin) but also in regard to activity.

Crowded hoppers of Schistocerca gregaria (Forsk.) reared on synthetic diets lacking carotene usually had turquoise-blue blood by the fifth instar. It was shown, by the electrophoresis of yellow, green and blue bloods in parallel, that the blue chromoprotein of blue blood is the same as the blue chromoprotein of green blood. Its prosthetic pigment must therefore be mesobiliverdin.

The abnormalities of coloration which arise in crowded Locusta and Schistocerca when deprived of carotene are normal in the solitary phase. Moreover, they resemble those abnormalities of coloration consequent upon the implantation of additional corpora allata into gregarious hoppers. The implications of this are discussed in relation to the validity of phase criteria, and an attempt is made to relate these findings to hypotheses on the humoral regulation of phase.

Type
Research Paper
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , April 1961 , pp. 63 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1961

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bellamy, D. (1958). The structure and metabolic properties of tissue preparations from Schistocerca gregaria (desert locust).—Biochem. J. 70 pp. 580–589.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bodenstein, D. (1953). The role of hormones in molting and metamorphosis.—In Roeder, K. D. Ed. Insect physiology, pp. 879–931.Google Scholar
Bowness, J. M. & Wolken, J. J. (1959). A light-sensitive yellow pigment from the house-fly.—J. gen. Physiol. 42 pp. 779–792.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buck, J. B. (1953). Physical properties and chemical composition of insect blood.—In Roeder, K. D. Ed. Insect physiology, pp. 147–190.Google Scholar
Bückmann, D. (1959). Die Auslösung der Umfärbung durch das Häutungshormon bei Cerura vinula L. (Lepidoptera, Notodontidae).—J. Insect Physiol. 3 pp. 159–189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlisle, D. B. & Ellis, P. E. (1959). La persistance des glandes ventrales céphaliques chez les criquets solitaires.—C.R. Acad. Sci. 249 pp. 1059–1060.Google Scholar
Chauvin, R. (1941). Contribution à l'étude physiologique du criquet pèlerin et du déterminisme des phénomènes grégaires.—Ann. Soc. ent. Fr. 110 pp. 133–272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dadd, R. H. (1957). Ascorbic acid and carotene in the nutrition of the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria Forsk.—Nature, Lond. 179 pp. 427–428.Google Scholar
Dadd, R. H. (1960). The nutritional requirements of locusts. I. Development of synthetic diets and lipid requirements.—J. Insect Physiol. 4 pp. 319—347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faure, J. C. (1932). The phases of locusts in South Africa.—Bull. ent. Res. 23 pp. 293–424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, L. R. & Kon, S. K. (1959). Vitamin A in the invertebrates.—Biol. Rev. 34 pp. 1–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodwin, T. W. (1949). The biochemistry of locusts. 2. Carotenoid distribution in solitary and gregarious phases of the African migratory locust (Locusta migratoria migratorioides R. & F.) and the desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria Forsk.).—Biochem. J. 45 pp. 472–479.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodwin, T. W. (1950). Biochemistry of locusts. 4. Insectorubin metabolism in the desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria Forsk.) and the African migratory locust (Locusta migratoria migratorioides R. and F.).—Biochem. J. 47 pp. 554–562.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodwin, T. W. (1952). The biochemistry of locust pigmentation.—Biol. Rev. 27 pp. 439–460.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodwin, T. W. & Srisukh, S. (1949). The biochemistry of locusts. 1. The carotenoids of the integument of two locust species (Locusta migratoria migratorioides R. & F. and Schistocerca gregaria Forsk.).—Biochem. J. 45 pp. 263–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodwin, T. W. & Srisukh, S. (1951). Biochemistry of locusts. 5. The green pigment of the haemolymph and integument of solitary locusts (Locusta migratoria migratorioides, R. & F., and Schistocerca gregaria, Forsk.).—Biochem. J. 48 pp. 199–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gunn, D. L. & Hunter-Jones, P. (1952). Laboratory experiments on phase differences in locusts.—Anti-Locust Bull. no. 12, pp. 1–29.Google Scholar
Howden, G. F. & Hunter-Jones, P. (1958). An artificial diet for the laboratory rearing of locusts.—Nature, Lond. 182 pp. 1527–1528.Google Scholar
Husain, M. A. & Ahmad, T. (1936). Studies on Schistocerca gregaria Forsk. VI. Influence of temperature on the intensity and extent of black pattern in the desert locust hoppers bred crowded.—Indian J. agric. Sci. 6 pp. 624–664.Google Scholar
Husain, M. A. & Mathur, C. B. (1936). Studies on Schistocerca gregaria Forsk. VIII. Influence of carbon dioxide on development of black pigmentation in Schistocerca gregaria Forsk.—Indian J. agric. Sci. 6 pp. 1005–1030.Google Scholar
Joly, L. (1954). Résultats d'implantations systématiques de corpora allata à des jeunes larves de Locusta migratoria L.—C.R. Soc. Biol. 148 pp. 579–583.Google Scholar
Joly, P. (1945). Les corrélations humorales chez les insectes.—Année biol. (3) 21 pp. 1–34.Google Scholar
Joly, P. (1949). Le système endocrine rétrocérébral chez les acridiens migrateurs.—Ann. Sci. nat. (Zool.) 11 pp. 255–262.Google Scholar
Joly, P. (1951). Déterminisme endocrine de la pigmentation chez Locusta migratoria L.—C.R. Soc. Biol. 145 pp. 1362–1364.Google Scholar
Kennedy, J. S. (1939). The behaviour of the desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria (Forsk.)) (Orthopt.) in an outbreak centre.—Trans. R. ent. Soc. Lond. 89 pp. 385–542.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, J. S. (1956). Phase transformation in locust biology.—Biol. Rev. 31 pp. 349–370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Key, K. H. L. (1950). A critique on the phase theory of locusts.—Quart. Rev. Biol. 25 pp. 363–407.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kohler, G. O. (1944). The effect of stage of growth on the chemistry of the grasses.—J. biol. Chem. 152 pp. 215–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loher, W. (1958). An olfactory response of immature adults of the desert locust.—Nature, Lond. 181 p. 1280.Google Scholar
Loher, W. (1959). Studies of chemoreception in the desert locust.—Ph.D. thesis, Univ. London.Google Scholar
Mason, H. S. (1955). Comparative biochemistry of the phenolase complex.—Advanc. Enzymol. 16 pp. 105–184.Google ScholarPubMed
Nickerson, B. (1956). Pigmentation of hoppers of the desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria Forskål) in relation to phase coloration.—Anti-Locust Bull. no. 24, 34 pp.Google Scholar
Ohnishi, E. (1959). Pigment composition in the pupal cuticles of two colour types of the swallow-tails, Papilio xuthus L. and P. protenor demetrius Cramer.—J. Insect Physiol. 3 pp. 132–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Okay, S. (1953). Formation of green pigment and colour changes in Orthoptera.—Bull. ent. Res. 44 pp. 299–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ross, G. C. (1959). Electrophoresis—adaptation of vertical P.E.P. type tank for horizontal membrane techniques.—Lab. Pract. 8 pp. 173–174.Google Scholar
Stower, W. J. (1959). The colour patterns of hoppers of the desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria Forskål).—Anti-Locust Bull. no. 32, 75 pp.Google Scholar
Uvarov, B. P. (1921). A revision of the genus Locusta, L. (= Pachytylus, Fieb.), with a new theory as to the periodicity and migrations of locusts.—Bull. ent. Res. 12 pp. 135–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uvarov, B. P. (1923). Notes on locusts of economic importance, with some new data on the periodicity of locust invasion.—Bull. ent. Res. 14 pp. 31–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uvarov, B. P. (1928). Locusts and grasshoppers. A handbook for their study and control.—352 pp. London, Imp. Bur. Ent.Google Scholar