Abstract
The study that we conducted investigates how well Manduca sexta will survive off iridoid glycoside(IG) containing plants. We intially believed that Manduca sexta would adapt better to a diet that composed of the artificial diet. This is due to the fact that IG plants are not the usual plants that Manduca sexta consume in their diet. The pyrrolizidine alkaloid (PA) and IG chemicals are found in plants that are used for defensive purposes. M.sexta have been found to feed off of PA plants for their diet. We grouped the caterpillars into specific groups with different diets that were than observed weekly for four weeks to see the rates for growth, defecation, and amount of plant matter eaten. We found that the group of M. sexta that was fed exclusively the artificial diet did not grow nearly as much as the group fed off of the Lycopersicon esculentum and Lonicera japonica, which is an IG plant. There is statistical evidence that M. sexta have better adapted to the IG plants than the artificial diet using the ANOVA method on SPSS. This further gives evidence that M.sexta are in fact able to grow from eating IG plants, but also adapt well to the diet of IG plants.
Keywords: pyrrolizidine alkaloid, iridoid glycoside
Files
Thumbnail | File name | Date Uploaded | Visibility | File size | Options |
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rough_draft_for_final_paper.docx | 19 Jul 2022 | Public | 294 kB |
Metadata
- Subject
Biology
- Institution
Gainesville
- Event location
Nesbitt 3201
- Event date
23 March 2018
- Date submitted
19 July 2022
- Additional information
Acknowledgements:
Evan Lampert