X-RAY EFFECTS ON ADULT ARTEMIA

Abstract

A total of 375 adult brine shrimp were used. Samples of 5 were taken at random from mass cultures reared from commercial American eggs and X-irradiated. Subsequent to treatment, life span at 30 [degree] was studied in both sexes. Further investigation was made of the amount of radiation required to halt egg production. As adults, Artemia males are killed by 200,000 r; females by 150,000 r. This approaches the doses required to kill adult holometabolous insects. Neither insects nor the brine shrimp depend upon mitotic tissues in adulthood, differentiation has involved endo-mitosis. The sterility dose found at 2000-3000 r is lower than in insects with polytrophic ovarioles and higher than in grasshoppers with simpler panoistic ovarioles, again a distinction involving endomitosis. Further investigation is suggested for the interrelations of the Artemia shell gland and the reproductive cycle.