Recent advances in understanding mechanisms of insect cuticle differentiation
2010
Moussian, Bernard
Insects possess a cuticle that covers all tissues exposed to the outside world including the body, the fore- and hindgut and the luminal side of the tracheae. The cuticle is a multifunctional device that protects its carriers against dehydration, arms them against predators, constitutes a physical barrier to prevent pathogen entry and serves as an exoskeleton allowing locomotion. Depending the developmental stage and the body part, the composition and function of the cuticle changes. The body cuticle of larvae of holometabolous insects for example is soft while their cuticular head skeletons used to chew food is hard. In spite of these differences, the basic architecture of the insect cuticle is evolutionarily well conserved between developmental stages and between species.
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