We investigated divalent cation and anaerobic end-product concentrations and the interactive effects of these substances and pH on haemocyanin oxygen-binding (Hc-O(2)) in the New Zealand abalone Haliotis iris. During 24 h of environmental hypoxia (emersion), D-lactate and tauropine accumulated in the foot and shell adductor muscles and in the haemolymph of the aorta, the pedal sinus and adducto...

Animals carefully regulate the amount of protein that they consume. The quantity of individual essential amino acids (EAAs) obtained from dietary protein depends on the protein source, but how the proportion of EAAs in the diet affects nutrient balancing has rarely been studied. Recent research using the Geometric Framework for Nutrition has revealed that forager honeybees who receive much of t...

It is well known that application of L-glutamic acid to insect excitatory neuromuscular synapses leads to the production of depolarizing postsynaptic potentials, and this, with other evidence, has led to the belief that L-glutamic acid may be the chemical transmitter at these synapses (Pitman, 1971). It is also known that the haemolymph that bathes insect muscles contains L-glutamate at concent...

Air-breathing Cardisoma carnifex, collected in Moorea, French Polynesia, were held in fresh water similar in chemical composition to that in their burrows. Under control conditions, which allowed branchial chamber flushing but not ventilation of the medium, crabs demonstrated net Na and Cl~ uptake, and ammonia, urea and base excretion (= acidic equivalent uptake). Throughout 192 h of water depr...

The degradation of synthetic cydiastatin 4 (ARPYSFGL-amide) and cydiastatin 4 analogues cydiastatin 4alpha (PPPPPARPYSFGL-amide) and cydiastatin 4beta (PPPPPARPYSF[Acpc]L-amide) by enzymes associated with the midgut and/or haemolymph of the tobacco hawkmoth moth, Manduca sexta was investigated using reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) combined with matrix assisted la...

Chill tolerance of insects is defined as the ability to tolerate low temperature under circumstances not involving freezing of intracellular or extracellular fluids. For many insects chill tolerance is crucial for their ability to persist in cold environments and mounting evidence indicates that chill tolerance is associated with the ability to maintain ion and water homeostasis, thereby ensuri...

1. Hairworms (phylum Nematomorpha) and mermithid nematodes (phylum Nematoda) have independently evolved almost identical life cycles: both parasites cause their terrestrial arthropod hosts to seek water, required for their aquatic free-living adult stage. Hairworms achieve this by altering host neurotransmitters, but the mechanisms used by mermithids remain unknown. 2. The physiological effects...

The osmoregulatory and respiratory responses of male and female Smeringurus mesaensis (Vaejovidae) to prolonged desiccation were measured. No significant effect of sex on mass-loss rates (MLRs) was found. Still, females maintained their haemolymph osmolality when desiccated to 10% mass loss, whereas that of males increased significantly after loss of as little as 5% of initial mass. Females had...

Ammonia is a toxic nitrogenous waste product of amino acid metabolism that may accumulate to high levels in the medium ingested by larvae of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Here we report measurements of haemolymph NH4(+) concentration and the secretion of NH4(+) by the Malpighian (renal) tubules. Measurement of NH4(+) concentrations in secreted droplets is complicated either by the requ...

There has been a considerable amount of work on the electrical potential differences and active transport processes of ions across various vertebrate epithelia (Ussing, i960). Little work of this type has been attempted on invertebrate material. As the crustacean gill epithelium has only a single layer of cells separating the body fluid and the external medium, it should be particularly suitabl...