QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by MADDRELL, S. H. P. Articles by GARDINER, B. O. C. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by MADDRELL, S. H. P. Articles by GARDINER, B. O. C.

Journal of Experimental Biology 85,227-237 (1980)
Published by Company of Biologists 1980

The Permeability of the Cuticular Lining of the Insect Alimentary Canal

S. H. P. MADDRELL ¹ and B. O. C. GARDINER ¹

¹ A.R.C. Unit of Invertebrate Chemistry and Physiology, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EF

1. The permeability of the cuticle lining the foregut and hindgut of adults of Schistocerca gregaria, Gromphadorhina portentosa, and Leucophaea maderae, and larvae of Manduca sexta was investigated.

2. In Schistocerca, Manduca, Leucophaea, and Gromphadorhina the cuticle lining the foregut has a very low permeability, while that lining the ileum (Schistocerca, Manduca, Leucophaea, and Gromphadorhina) and the rectum (Schistocerca and Manduca) is much more permeable.

3. The low permeability of cuticle lining the crop in the insects examined is suited to the crop's function as a temporary store of ingested material.

4. In Schistocerca gregaria, the cuticular lining of the ileum and rectum were found to be equally permeable. Each allows relatively rapid passage of small neutrally charged hydrophilic molecules. Both, however, showed a reduced permeability to anions and an enhanced permeability to cations. The cuticular lining of the hindgut would thus not be a barrier to the reabsorption of useful substances known to appear in the fluid reaching the hindgut from the Malpighian tubules, but it would, to some extent, retain in the lumen the relatively large anions actively excreted by the Malpighian tubules.

5. The cuticle lining the colon of Schistocerca gregaria has a much lower permeability than has that lining the rest of the hindgut. This accords with the idea that the colon is thought not to be involved in absorption.