QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by MANSOUR, K. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by MANSOUR, K.

Journal of Experimental Biology 11,243-256 (1934)
Published by Company of Biologists 1934

On the Digestion of Wood by Insects

K. MANSOUR PH.D.(LOND.)¹

¹ Department of zoology, Egyptian University, Cairo

1. The true wood-feeding insects do not depend on micro-organisms for the digestion of wood. Such insects are of two types:

(a) Without cellulose-breaking enzymes. Insects of this type derive the necessary carbohydrates from the soluble sugars and starch in the wood they live on, and consequently such insects can only live in kinds of wood comparatively rich in these substances.

(b) With cellulose-breaking enzymes. Insects of this type can utilise the cellulose of the wood through the activity of their own secretions. They therefore can live on woods very poor in the simpler carbohydrates.

2. Wood-eating insects with free-living intestinal micro-organisms (such as the termites and the Lamellicorn larvae) use the micro-organisms as direct food and derive no digestive help from them. Insects of this type are better referred to as micro-organism feeding.