A study of the feculae of Orthoptera, their specificity, and the role which the insects'mouthparts, alimentary canal, and food-habits play in their formation

Abstract

Many physiological studies have been carried out on different aspects of the feculae ("feces") and their formation in Orthoptera (sens. lat.). Among the more important of these researches are ones by Nenjukov and Parfentjev (1929), Nielsen (1943), and Snipes and Tauber (1937), who described for various species the speed of transit of food through the alimentary canal, i. e., rate of formation of feculae; Chauvin (1946), the periodicity of defecation in four species ; Bro-wn (1937) and Chauvin (1941), the biochemistry of feculae ; Brown (1937), their structure ; and numerous authors, the general physiology of digestion and excretion in Orthoptera. Surprisirigly, however, purely descriptive studies on feculae have lagged. Frost (1928; 1959) reviewed insect "scatology", but included scant material relative to Orthoptera ; Weiss and Boyd (1950) described and figured the feculae of three species of Orthoptera, and Boldyrev (1928) did the same for a species of katydid ; and Day (1950) described, but did not figure, those of a species of cockroach.