Abstract
WILLIAMS1 was unable to locate prothoracic glands in the larvæ of Coleoptera, but later, Stellwaag-Kittler2 claimed to have found them in Tenebrio molitor, and Núnez3 described them in the carabid Anisotarsus cupripennis. In Tenebrio, Stellwaag-Kittler reported them as a pair of slender unbranched structures, each running anteriorly along a trachea from the prothoracic spiracle ; on entering the head they converge, pass beneath the nerve cord and become attenuated. Closer examination of these relatively conspicuous structures in mature larvæ of T. molitor has now shown that each is continued anteriorly into a separate duct; the two ducts open separately, one on each side of the hypopharynx. In fact, these structures are evidently the ‘salivary glands’ which have previously been reported in some tenebrionid larvæ4.
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References
Williams, C. M., Biol. Bull., 94, 60 (1948).
Stellwaag-Kittler, F., Biol. Zbl., 73, 12 (1954).
Núnez, J. A., Biol. Zbl., 73, 602 (1954).
Gupta, R. L., Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. India, 7, 181 (1937).
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SRIVASTAVA, U. Prothoracic Glands in Tenebrio molitor L. (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae). Nature 181, 1668 (1958). https://doi.org/10.1038/1811668a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1811668a0
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