
%0 Journal Article
%A Day, MF 
%A Powning, RF 
%T A Study of the Processes of Digestion in Certain Insects
%J Australian Journal of Biological Sciences
%D 1949/06/01
%V 2
%N 2
%P 175-215
%K 
%R https://doi.org/10.1071/BI9490175
%U https://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/BI9490175 
%X Several aspects of the processes of digestion in the insects Blattella germanica, Periplaneta americana, and Tenebrio molitor are reported. In Blattella starved for 2 days, a meal of coloured starch reaches the midgut within 10 minutes and the rectum within 5 hours. The pH of the gut contents on a starch diet is approximately 4.5 in the crop, 6.0 in the midgut, and 8.0 in the hindgut. A protein diet raises the pH of the crop to about 6.0, but does not change that of the other regions. There is a gradient of decreasing redox potential from the crop to the hindgut where the Eh approximates - 0.1 V. at pH 8.0. 
