The Utilization of Certain Nitrogenous and Carbohydrate Substances by the Southern Armyworm, Prodenia Eridania Cram

Abstract

Our present knowledge of the nutritional requirements of insects pertains chiefly to those forms, such as cockroaches and stored products insects, that can easily be fed prepared diets. Leaf-eating insects present a distinct problem because of the nature of their food and the difficulty of causing them to feed on anything but their specific host plant or plants in the natural condition. Some recent work has been done on the utilization of various constituents of green leaves by several lepidopterous larvae (Brown, 1930; Evans, 1938, 1939a, 1939b) and by a grasshopper (Brown, 1937b). The present work, conducted along these same lines, was an effort to determine what nutrient materials the experimental insect was getting from its leaf-food.