Effects of Starvation on Composition of Japanese Beetle Larvae (Popillia japonica Newman)

Abstract

Third-instar Japanese beetle larvae were starved at 25 C. over distilled water, and analyses were made on normal larvae and those starved for 1,2,3, and 4 weeks. Determinations were made on the content of glycogen, fat, glucose, total N, and the following nitrogenous fractions: alcohol-ether extractable nitrogen, water-soluble N not precipitated by tungstic acid, water-soluble nitrogen precipitated by tungstic acid and insoluble N. The greatest loss of glycogen and fat occurred during the first 2 weeks of starvation. Reducing substances, expressed as glucose, decrease only 25% during inanition, but most of the available glucose is presumably lost. Very little N was lost during inanition. There was, however, a considerable shift in the various nitrogenous fractions.