Know your insect: Malpighian tubules in Trichoplusia ni (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

Abstract

Malpighian tubules are mainly known to be involved in excretion. However, recent studies have begun to look into other potential roles including detoxification, immunity, host establishment, etc. In this case study, we observed the Malpighian tubules of the cabbage looper (Trichoplusia ni) using confocal laser scanning microscopy. We also discuss other functions that Malpighian tubules are known for (i.e. silk-like and gall-inducing secretions) as well as the similarities between Malpighian tubules and salivary glands in endoparasitic Hymenoptera. Keywordscabbage looper, caterpillars, urinary bladder, uric acid Case Study BackgroundThe following work is the result of the "Know Your Insect" graduate course in the Department of Entomology at the Pennsylvania State University, taught during the fall semester of 2016. Briefly, the course provides the opportunity for a small group of students to discuss the morphology of the insects of interest. Regardless of which area of ‡ ‡ © Rivera-Vega L, Mikó I. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Developmental and Nutritional Dynamics of Malpighian Tubule Autofluorescence in the Asian Tiger Mosquito Aedes albopictus

“…albopictus, in different developmental stages and after nutritional manipulations. Collectively, our results advance knowledge of the AF in these organs, which has been previously studied in other insect species [ 42 , 54 , 55 , 56 ] but was unexplored in mosquitoes. Our results provide the background for experiments aimed at identifying and characterizing the fluorophores responsible for the reported AF and a platform for developing and testing novel hypotheses about the function of the MTs in this key arboviral vector.…”

Gross Morphology, Histology and Ultrastructure of the Nymphal Ileum of Conocephalus (Xiphidion) fuscus fuscus (Fabricius, 1793) (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae)

“…The volume and composition of this filtrate starts to modify in the ileum lumen. The main role of the ileum in insects, as the intermediate step of the excretory system, is secretion, food digestion, and reabsorption of the water, ions, and metabolic residues (16,(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31). Besides, in some insects such as Schistocerca gregaria (Orthoptera: Acrididae), the ileum contributes to the osmoregulation (32).…”