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How do they eat

Community and Forum → Insects biology and faunistics → How do they eat

fly-km, 13.10.2008 15:06

1. where is fat deposited when feeding larvae? if chitin is not stretchable, then an increase in the amount of fat should lead to an increase in internal pressure..
2. then..during molting, how are your supplies consumed?

This post was edited by fly-km-13.10.2008 15: 08

Comments

14.10.2008 10:56, Alexandr Rusinov

Fat in larvae, as in all insects, is deposited in the fat body surrounding all organs. The chitinous shell is stretchable, but up to certain limits, when the possibilities of stretching are exhausted, molting occurs. As for the internal pressure... I've never seen caterpillars that were torn apart by overeating smile.gif

14.10.2008 11:28, fly-km

I understand, but the pressure is on the internal organs or what?

14.10.2008 11:29, fly-km

and on the 2nd?

14.10.2008 13:45, Bad Den

and on the 2nd?

Spent, just like everywhere and always-eaten smile.gif

14.10.2008 14:00, fly-km

Good..then the question is - how many times does the mass increase during molting?

14.10.2008 14:14, Alexandr Rusinov

Directly during molting, the mass should not increase, but decrease by the weight of the discarded exuvium. Weight gain occurs after molting due to increased nutrition and growth

14.10.2008 14:22, DmitryBurkow

Now my empuses are growing, it is convenient to observe.
Chitin is of two types: stretchable and thin (caterpillars and membranes) and hard. In empusa, almost all the chitin is solid, but the abdomen is made of a set of plates that slide apart from each other - so the abdomen is VERY stretchable. In the process of nutrition, everything is deposited in the abdomen. Then the stage of preparation for molting begins: all fat is processed into muscle mass, tissues and a new chitinous cover (still soft) under the main one. At this stage, although the empusa is able to move, it sees poorly and does not eat anything. Then molt-the mass does not change, and the new chitin hardens, stretches to a normal size and hardens. The abdomen turns out to be "folded" again (the area of chitin has increased and the volume of contents has remained the same) and everything starts all over again.

This post was edited by DmitryBurkow - 10/14/2008 14: 23

14.10.2008 14:31, fly-km

if all the fat is in the mass before molting, then what then? and how can they feed immediately after it?

14.10.2008 14:37, Alexandr Rusinov

All fat can not pass into muscle mass, fat reserves are preserved, and the main growth occurs after molting, until the chitin is completely solidified.

14.10.2008 14:45, fly-km

ahasmile.gif, but at the expense of what it occurs many times faster than in other organisms?

14.10.2008 14:54, omar

Which ones?

14.10.2008 15:07, Guest

Duc, this is such a feature of arthropods - spasmodic growth, when an increase in body size occurs after molting. By the way, fat reserves are not directly related to the ability to grow. Fat is a store of energy, not substances for building muscle mass. Fat does not turn into protein - biochemistry does not allow smile.gif

14.10.2008 15:11, Alexandr Rusinov

It was me.

14.10.2008 15:12, fly-km

in vertebrates.. Good..well, HOW then?

I'm stupid, I know wall.gif

14.10.2008 19:13, DmitryBurkow

Is it like a 30-50% INCREASE in 15 minutes?! It's hard to believe somehow... Still, it seems that the main restructuring occurs before molting, otherwise how can we explain that preparation for molting takes 4 days and after molting the insect is ready to hunt and runs calmly in 4 hours? Molting is only the growth of the outer integuments (and not even growth, but stretching to the desired size). Of course, something inside stretches when molting, but all the main things are done in advance.

01.11.2008 10:40, fly-km

at what point does chitin react with proteins? and how does this relate to light?

14.11.2008 1:02, Chromocenter

Is it like a 30-50% INCREASE in 15 minutes?!

that is, how much 30-50%??? you mean that the insect seems to straighten out after molting - so, probably, it also fills with air... in particular, in drosophila, this is probably the case - at some point you can see how they are "bloated", and then they harden and decrease a little... well, the fact that proteins cannot be formed from fat is understandable - there is no nitrogen in fats, although it can go to the synthesis of amino acids as a source of carbon. I honestly don't know... I need to look at a somewhat dusty biochemistry book... shuffle.gif

18.11.2008 19:16, Мих

Directly during molting, the mass should not increase, but decrease by the weight of the discarded exuvium. Weight gain occurs after molting due to increased nutrition and growth

Did you weigh the insect before and after molting? I'm not. But my friend is a professional entomologist, and says that such experiments were made. The mass increases, so much so that it not only compensates for the mass of the lost cover, but also increases. This occurs as a result of the reaction of the soft cover with oxygen and the hardening of chitin.

20.12.2008 15:36, Chromocenter

that is, it "burns out" there? to what molecules? carbon dioxide??? although probably still to something "less gaseous", and why would solidification be caused by a reaction with oxygen?

22.12.2008 10:59, fly-km

I don't know EXACTLY why..but it's true.. chitin is really being tanned..this question has always worried me..in the first day, the bug can spread its wings and other parts of the body..and then-all

24.12.2008 5:29, RippeR

wow!!
And where does excess weight come from? Something at all I do not understand frown.gifAnd how much the weight increases in comparison with the previous weight?

13.01.2009 20:41, t00m

I measured the mass of Lasiocampa querqus caterpillars. No increase in mass after molting occurs, and it can not occur (they have not yet learned to photosynthesize) I think the expression "growth during molting" means nothing more than an increase in the area of the chitinous cover, and this "growth" is weakly associated with internal changes (well, except, of course, the formation of a new layer of skin) I also assure you that chitin freezes not from reaction with air. If you kill a non-hardened butterfly, then how long would it not lie in the air - its wings remain soft, and how would there be aquatic insects, such as dragonfly larvae?
Likes: 1

17.06.2009 22:31, fly-km

and what kind of reaction takes place, as a result of which chitin hardens?

17.06.2009 23:17, RippeR

solidification lol.gif

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