Larval fat body and its relationship to protein storage and ovarian development in adults of the screw-worm fly chrysomya bezziana
1981
SPRADBERY, J.P. | SANDS, D.P.A.
The vast majority of females of the Old World screw-worm fly, Chrysomya bezziana Villeneuve (Diptera: Calliphoridae), from field populations and from normally maintained laboratory cultures are autogenous. Anautogenous C. bezziana females which are smaller in size are produced when the larval feeding period is curtailed. Autogenous and anautogenous C. bezziana were compared with reference to abdominal larval fat body (LFB), ovarian development and protein relationships. At emergence, autogenous C. bezziana have larger amounts of LFB relative to body size than anautogenous C. bezziana. Volume of LFB is directly correlated with body size in females showing autogeny but there is no correlation with size in females in the anautogenous size classes. Males and females of equal sizes have the same volume of LFB and their rates of LFB depletion are similar and temperature-dependent. In autogenous females, about 70% of the LFB disappears before vitellogenesis begins. LFB disappears more rapidly in smaller flies. In anautogenous C. bezziana females, access to a source of protein from the time of adult emergence reduced the rate of LFB depletion, but in autogenous flies the depletion rate is not affected by diet. LFB protein accounts for about 24% of total protein in newly emerged autogenous females of C. bezziana. The protein content of the mature ovaries of non-protein-fed wild C. bezziana is 85% of that of the original LFB protein. Non-protein-fed anautogenous C. bezziana of the same age have negligible quantities of ovary protein.
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