Abstract
WHEN small insects are injected with labelled metabolites trouble is caused by mechanical damage, excessive bleeding, clogging of the needle, and the serious distortion of metabolism which results from the sudden administration of up to 20 per cent of the insect's weight of water plus 10–60 µmoles of metabolite/g of live weight. One way to overcome these difficulties would be to make a fat-soluble acetate precursor which could be applied directly to the cuticle in the same way as an insecticide. The use of n-decyl 1-14C-acetate prepared by direct esterification of n-decyl alcohol has been investigated. No effect on mortality, pupation or emergence was found to result from topical application of acetone solutions, or even up to 1 µl. of undiluted n-decyl acetate, to larvae of the blowfly Calliphora erythrocephala.
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References
Heslop, J. P., Biochem. J., 91, 183 (1964).
Price, G. M., Biochem. J., 80, 420 (1961).
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HESLOP, J. Topically Applied n-Decyl Acetate as a Precursor for Metabolic Investigations in Insects. Nature 213, 291 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1038/213291a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/213291a0
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