ECOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF DIGESTIVE ENZYME COVARIATION IN ALMOND MOTH LARVAE, EPHESTIA-CAUTELLA (WALKER) (LEPIDOPTERA, PHYTICIDAE)

In this paper we examine the correlations between activity levels of s everal digestive enzymes measured simultaneously in larvae of the almo nd moth, Ephestia (=Cadra) cautella (Walker). This study is unique in that we measured enzyme activity in each individual larva, not in samp les pooled from several individuals as is the usual procedure in physi ological studies of insects. This enabled us to take individual variat ion in size and enzyme activity into consideration and to calculate th e correlation between different enzymes. We demonstrate that inter-enz yme correlations are affected by the diet on which the larvae feed. In most of the research on insect digestive physiology, investigators ha ve concentrated on a single enzyme. But in the insect alimentary canal , different enzymes do not work in isolation. We demonstrate some patt erns of activity correlations of different enzymes measured in extract s from the same individual larva which may suggest possible mechanisms of enzyme activity regulation.