Although wool and other keratinous materials consist of highly crosslinked protein matter and thus are virtually insoluble and resistant to biological attack, some insect larvae are able to digest and use them as food. The digestion of wool by these moth and beetle species involves processes that are not yet fully understood. Scanning electron microscopic investigations of larvae excreta have helped to shed more light on this subject by showing the breakdown of wool and the digestion of the morphological components of wool by moth and beetle larvae, on the basis of the remaining wool fragments. The feces of all larvae species, excreted after feeding on untreated and mothproofed wool, were found to contain wool fragments in different stages of degradation. In the last stage of degradation, the wool was broken down to its fibrillar structures. Microscopic observations of the excreta indicated a preferential breakdown in the larval gut of some of the low sulfur regions of the wool.Wool and other keratinous materials are subject to attack as a primary food source for the larvae of several moth and beetle species. The larvae of some thirty species of moth (Lepidoptera), some fifteen species of beetles (Coleoptera), and several hundred species of bird lice (Mallophaga) are able to break down keratins. Only a few of these insect species are considered as serious fabric pests, however, the most important being the larvae of the webbing clothes moth (Tineola bisselliella), the case-bearing clothes moth (Tinea spp.), the brown house moth (Hofmannophila pseudospretella), the furniture carpet beetle (Anthrenus spp.), and the black carpet beetle (Attagenus spp.), variant strains of them being present in nature [ 15]. The ability of these insect larvae to break down crosslinked protein material, especially wool, is unusual. Extensive research work exploring the digestive mechanisms and enzyme systems of some of these wool pests has already been described, e.g., by Linderstrom-Lang and Duspiva [9], Waterhouse [ 15], and more recently by Ward [ 13,14] and Baker [ I ]. The actual course of the digestion process still raises questions. ' A wide range of commercial moth-and beetle-proof ing agents permits the effective control of keratin-digesting pests, though up to now there are several unsolved problems with respect to the biology, application methods, and environmental aspects of the different product systems and their biologically active iDpdents [4]. Further fundamental research activities, aimed at a better understanding of the biological and biochemical mechanisms of wool-feeding insects, are necessary for the effoctive control of insect pests. In our previous work, we examined the breakdown of mothproofed and nonproofed wool by moth and beetle larvae by analyzing their excreta [5-71. Characterization of the larvae feces by means of amino acid analysis and SDS-polyacrylamide gel dectropboresis is given elsewhere [7]. This paper deals with scanning electron microscopic observations of moth-and bottle-type feces, excreted ...
Some insect larvae have a remarkable ability to digest and utilise keratin, i.e. highly cross-linked protein material. Extensiue investigations about the digestive mechanism of these insects have already been carried out but the actual course of keratin digestion by the insect pests is still under discussion. Inuestigations of moth and beetle excreta by amino acid analysis and polyac ylamide gel electrophoresis should shed more light on this subject. The present paper describes such comparative studies of larval faeces excreted afterfeeding with non-mothproofed and mothproofed wool, using low concentrations of two stomach poisons as moth-and beetle-proofing agents. It has been found by amino acid analysis that all excreta examined contained a mixture ofpeptides and free amino acids. Most ofthe moth excreta were rich in free cystine and histidine whereas the beetle excreta contained much free cystine and arginine. Only the brown house moth (Hofmannophila) proved exceptional in this respect. Gel electrophoretic analysis of excreta proteins showed a different pattern of breakdown of wool proteins by the principal wool pests. The electrophoretic patterns permitted a differentiation between the types of larvae.
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