Digestion of uncrushed leaf tissues by leaf-snipping larval Lepidoptera

Summary

Cynodon dactylon (Poaceae) leaf pieces recovered from the frass of final-instar Paratrytone melane larvae (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae) were composed of 14–22 percent crushed cells and 78–86 percent uncrushed cells, yet approximate digestibilities of soluble carbohydrates and protein averaged 78 and 88 percent, respectively. Therefore, nutrients from uncrushed cells were extracted by P. melane. The ability of P. melane and another leaf-snipping lepidopteran, Pseudaletia unipuncta (Noctuidae), to digest the contents of uncrushed bundle sheath and mesophyll cells in C. dactylon was examined with transmission electron microscopy. Organelles and plasma membranes were digested in the foreguts and midguts of both species. These findings suggest that nutrients in uncrushed leaf cells may be extracted through plasmodesmata and cell wall pores after membranes are digested. The generality of leaf-snipping, vis-a-vis leaf crushing, among larval Lepidoptera was assessed by surveying the mandible morphologies of 202 species. In 82 percent of the species surveyed only incisor regions were present. I conclude that leaf-snipping is a common mode of feeding among phytophagous Lepidoptera and that the digestion of cell contents is efficient despite the fact that few of the cells of ingested plant tissues are crushed.