Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-sh8wx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T22:04:55.777Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Motor responses of Rhodnius prolixus Stål (Hem., Reduviidae) to volatile drugs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

Ian McLure
Ian McLure
Affiliation:
Instituto de Zoologia Tropical Universidad Central de Venezuela, Apartado Los Chaguaramos 59058, Caracas 105, Venezuela
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Fifth-instar nymphs of Rhodnius prolixus Stålwere exposed to the vapours of 11 volatile drugs: acetone, bromobenzene, bromoform, carbon tetrachloride, chloral hydrate, chloroform, dioxane, ethanol, ethyl ether, isopropanol and paraldehyde. Bromobenzene, bromoform, carbon tetrachloride, chloroform and ether induced reversible anaesthesia. For each of these five, the insects exhibited a different andspecific pattern of motor responses before becoming totally immobile; these responses are described. The responses to carbon tetrachloride are similar to the normal feeding responses of this insect. The other six drugs did not induce anaesthesia, but instead, a commonand stereotyped pattern of cleaning responses, suggesting irritation of the sensory organs. It is proposed that the agent-specific responses to the anaesthesiainducing drugs are due to their differential action upon specific portions of the insect central nervous system.

Type
Research Paper
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 61 , Issue 2 , November 1971 , pp. 309 - 313
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1971

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Horridge, G. A. (1962). Learning of leg position by the ventral nerve cord in headless insects.—Proc. R. Soc. B 157, 33–52.Google Scholar
Huber, F. (1963). The role of the central nervous system in Orthoptera during the co-ordination and control of stridulation. In Busnel, R. G. (Ed.) Acoustic behaviour of animals.—933 pp. Amsterdam, Elsevier.Google Scholar
Kraus, C. (1957). Versuch einer morphologischen und neurophysiologischen Analyse des Stechaktes von Rhodnius prolixus Stål, 1858.—Acta Trop. 14 (1), 36–87.Google Scholar
Orth, O. S. (1965). General anesthetics, 1: volatile agents. In Dipalnia, J. R. (Ed.) Drill's pharmacology in medicine.—3rd edn, 1488 pp. New York, McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Vowles, D. M. (1963). Neural mechanisms in insect behaviour. In Thorpe, W. H. & Zangwill, O. L. (Eds.) Current problems in animal behaviour.—424 pp. Cambridge, University Press.Google Scholar
Wigglesworth, V. B. & Gilletf, J. D. (1934). The function of the antennae in Rhodnius prolixus (Hemiptera) and the mechanism of orientation to the host.—J. exp. Biol. 11, 120–139.Google Scholar
Wilson, D. M. (1965). The nervous co-ordination of insect locomotion. In Treherne, J. E. & Beament, J. W. L (Eds.) Physiology of the insect central nervous system. Papers from the 12th International Congress of Entomology held in London, 1964.—277 pp. London, Academic Press.Google Scholar