Feeding behavior of the australian acridid, valanga irregularis
1975
FREELAND, W.J.
Feeding experiments with the Australian acridid, Valanga irregularis, demonstrated the following relationships: 1) grasshoppers require a period of feeding on a particular food before becoming completely adjusted to it; 2) the plant species eaten has a strong influence on the rate of ingestion, even when the species is a preferred food in nature; 3) grasshoppers eat more food when feeding on a variety of foods than they do when restricted to a single plant species; 4) the rate of food ingestion at any particular time can be influenced greatly by foods the grasshopper has eaten previously and 5) the observed patterns were not due to differences between plant species' water content or leaf hardness. It is argued that the nutritional content of the leaf species cannot explain the observed feeding behaviors. The results of the feeding experiments coincide with those hypothesized by Freeland & Janzen (1974) when considering the role of plant secondary compounds in determining the feeding behaviors of polyphagous mammals. It is suggested that plant secondary compounds are responsible for the observed feeding behavior of caged V. irregularis.
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