Premium
Feeding on the wing: energy allocation and prioritization in the hawk moth Manduca sexta (1100.3)
Author(s) -
Arcas Sam,
Davidowitz Goggy,
Contreras Heidy
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.28.1_supplement.1100.3
Subject(s) - manduca sexta , sphingidae , digestion (alchemy) , biology , wing , respirometry , specific dynamic action , food science , metabolic rate , ecology , chemistry , biochemistry , endocrinology , insect , engineering , chromatography , aerospace engineering
Independently, feeding and exercise have been documented as energetically costly activities. However, how simultaneous exercise and digestion affect energy allocation and exercise performance remains unclear. Using a simple model, we make predictions of how energy may be prioritized during exercise after consumption of food varying in quality. We used Manduca sexta (Sphingidae) to understand how organisms, adapted to “feeding on the wing”, prioritize and resolve a seeming conflict from these two simultaneous competing demands (digestion and activity). Previously, we showed that there was an additive effect of digestion to the metabolic cost of forward flight in M. sexta. In this study we focus on hovering flight to eliminate the effect of flight speed on metabolic rate. Adult, male M. sexta were fed one of 5 treatments (water, 5, 15, 25, 35% sucrose) and then required to sustain hovering flight until exhaustion. We recorded time to exhaustion as a measure of flight performance. Metabolic cost of flight was measured using flow through respirometry.