Central Nervous Control of the Mechanical Properties of the Cuticle in Rhodnius prolixus

Abstract

IN the course of experiments carried out to examine the mechanism of neurohumoral regulation of water economy, tonus modifications in the cuticle of the abdominal wall conditioned by the nervous system were observed. Such modifications in the mechanical properties of the cuticle were reported in a previous communication¹ as “peripheral inhibition of central origin”. Cottrell² describes similar changes in the blowfly, Calliphora erythrocephala, and interprets them on the basis of the sclerotization process. Certain evidence obtained in the fifth-stage larvæ of Rhodnius prolixus during feeding leads to the postulation of a nervous control of these properties of the cuticle.