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Studies on the water relations of adult locusts (orthoptera, acrididae). I. Respiration and the production of metabolic water

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

J. P. Loveridge  and
E. Bursell
J. P. Loveridge
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Rhodesia, P.O. Box MP 167, Mount Pleasant, Salisbury, Rhodesia
E. Bursell
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Rhodesia, P.O. Box MP 167, Mount Pleasant, Salisbury, Rhodesia
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Abstract

Adult males of Locusta migratoria migratorioides (R. & F.) had an oxygen consumption of 120 mm3 g-1 h-1 at 15°C and 988 mm3 g-1 h-1 at 37°C, although respiratory quotient in fed insects (0.83) did not alter over this temperature range. Starvation or starvation and desiccation reduced the respiratory quotient from 0.83 to 0.77 indicating a shift in metabolism from carbohydrates towards fats. It is shown that the amount of biologically useful energy produced (in the form of ATP) remains the same, and that a shift from carbohydrate to fat metabolism requires the depletion of a smaller weight of food reserve. The shift is counterproductive in terms of metabolic water production, as only 0.28 mg g-1 h-1 water is produced in starved or desiccated locusts compared with 0.35 mg g-1 h-1 in fed animals.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 65 , Issue 1 , March 1975 , pp. 13 - 20
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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