Active transport in insect recta.

The paper featured in this JEB Classics article (Phillips, 1964c) is one of a trio of articles in Volume 41 of The Journal of Experimental Biology in which John Phillips examines the issue of active transport in the insect rectum (Phillips, 1964a,b,c). The rectum of insects is a highly aerobically active organ. Active transport, that is the coupling of metabolic energy to the movement of compounds across the epithelium, is vital for osmoregulation and for the retention of ions, water and nutrients. The paper, entitled ‘Rectal absorption in the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria Forskal. III. The nature of the excretory process’, pulls together findings from the two previous papers in the series to show how insects manage osmoregulation and excretion to thrive in some of the world’s most inhospitable environments.