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Ascorbic Acid: An Essential Nutrient for a Plant-feeding Insect, Diatraea grandiosella¹

Department of Entomology, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri 65201

The dependency of the southwestern corn borer, Diatraea grandiosella Dyar, on dietary ascorbic acid was investigated. A dietary concentration of 0.5% (wet wt.) proved essential for normal growth, development, and fertility. Ascorbic acid had a neutral effect on larval feeding behavior. Larvae were shown to accumulate ascorbic acid to a maximum concentration of 8.9 mg/100 ml hemolymph. The nonspecific reducing agent L-cysteine did not substitute for ascorbic acid, suggesting that the vitamin has specific metabolic functions that have yet to be determined. An investigation of the sensitivity of the six larval stages to ascorbic acid showed that the species has a critical dietary requirement during the second and third stages. Dietary dehydroascorbic acid and D-araboascorbic acid, but not D-glucuronic acid or L-gulonolactone, substituted for ascorbic acid. These findings are compared with the dietary need for ascorbic acid found in other insects and vertebrates.

KEY WORDS: • insect nutrition • southwestern corn borer • ascorbic acid requirement

¹ Contribution from the Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station as Journal Series no. 7100.

Manuscript received 13 October 1974.