02038naa a2200241 a 450000100080000000500110000800800410001910000180006024501010007826000090017952013710018865000120155965000180157165000130158965000100160265300210161265300190163365300240165265300260167670000170170270000170171977300600173610791661998-03-31       1983    bl ---       0--  u    #d1 aSANTOS, C. D.  aConsumption of food and spatial organization of digestion in the cassava hornworm, Erinnys ello.  c1983  aFith-instar-Erinnyis ello larve eat 2.1 times their own weight per day of Euphorbia pulcherrima leaves, with a coefficient of digestibility of 45% and an efficiency of food conversion into tissue of 25%. The food takes about  150 min to go through the gut. Midgut contents have a pH of 9.3-9.8, depending on the region. Cellulase is absent from the gut in E. ello. Significant gut hydrolase activities are found only in midgut. Amylase and trypsin occur in the midgut tissue and in regurgitated material, whereas aminopetidase, alfa-glucosidase, Beta gucosidase and trehalase are found in major amounts in the midgut tissue, in minor amounts in the midgut contents and are absent form regurgitated material. The results support the hypothesis that digestion starts in  the endoperitrophic space under the action of amylase and trypsin and is largely completed in the ectoperitrophic space through the catalytic action of several oligomer and dimer hydrolases. Involvement of a membrane-bound aminopeptidase in the terminal digestion of oligopeptides cannot, at present, be excluded. The finding that less than 7% of the total amylase and trypsin are excreted, after a time identical to  the passage time of the food bolus, leads to the proposal for the existence of some mechanism by which those enzymes are recovered from the  undigested food before it is excreted.  acassava  aErinnyis Ello  aMandioca  aPraga  aCassava hornworm  aConsumo foliar  aConsumption of food  aMandarova-da-mandioca1 aFERREIRA, C.1 aTERRA, W. R.  tJournal of Insect Physiologygv.29, n.9, 707-714, 1983.