Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata (1970) 13, 352-358
A.J. Mordue and L. Hill (1970)
The utilisation of food by the adult female desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria
Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata 13 (3), 352-358
Abstract: Food utilisation has been estimated in the adult female Schistocerca gregaria by measurements of the weight of food ingested, the weight of faeces produced and the increase in body-weight. More food is eaten during somatic growth than during the first gorxotrophic cycle; moreover, bran is eaten in preference to lettuce during this period of intense feeding. The amount of available carbohydrate in lettuce is 35% of the dry weight and that of bran is 56.2% of the dry weight. The approximate digestibility of the food is higher during somatic growth than during ovarian growth which may reflect the greater percentage of easily digestible carbohydrate in bran than lettuce. The efficiency of conversion of ingested food to body-substance and the efficiency of conversion of digested food to body-substance are both greater during ovarian growth than during somatic growth. The protein requirements of both growth phases are approximately the same, but the animals utilise more carbohydrate during somatic growth than during ovarian growth. It is suggested that the carbohydrate digested during somatic growth is channelled both into formation of the chitin deposited in the cuticle and into energy production for the growth processes themselves. Thus the choice of bran may well lie in the provision of easily available carbohydrate without the problem of water loading which would be the case if large quantities of lettuce were consumed.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied from Acridological Abstracts with permission by NRI, Univ. of Greenwich at Medway.)
Link to article at publishers website
Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
general biology - morphology - evolution
Pest and/or beneficial records:
| Beneficial | Pest/Disease/Weed | Crop/Product | Country | Quarant.
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Schistocerca gregaria |
