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Feeding status and the rate of crop emptying in the hissing cockroach, Gromphadorhina portentosa.
Author(s) -
Medina Rubie,
Contreras Heidy
Publication year - 2016
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.30.1_supplement.978.2
Subject(s) - cockroach , biology , crop , meal , food intake , zoology , food science , agronomy , ecology , endocrinology
Crop emptying has been studied in only a few species of insects. Generally, it is known that there are a variety of factors that can affect the retention time of a meal in the crop: 1) the availability of food; 2) the nutritional status of the organism, and 3) regulatory mechanisms aimed at meeting the varying nutrient demands of the animal. In this experiment we wanted to investigate whether or not feeding status of fed vs. unfed cockroaches affected the rate at which food moved through the gut. Roaches in the unfed group were starved for 7 days. They were then fed a control diet which had been dyed blue. All roaches were allowed consume 2% of their initial body weight. After roaches had consumed this volume of food, they were placed in a chamber without food for different time periods (0, 30, 60, 120, and 240 minutes). A total of 8 roaches were placed under each time treatment. Cockroaches were then sacrificed using liquid nitrogen. Their digestive system was dissected and measurements were taken to determine how far food had moved through the gut. A similar protocol was used to determine the rate of food movement through the gut of fed roaches. Previous studies suggest that unfed insects retain food in the crop for longer periods of time compared to fed animals. We therefore hypothesize that G. portentosa will show a decreased rate of food movement out of the crop and into the mid gut compared to fed roaches. Support or Funding Information ULV Faculty Research Grant