Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, Vol s2-81, 451-478, Copyright © 1939 by Company of Biologists

Memoirs: The Alimentary Canal and Pro-epithelial Regeneration in Coccinella septempunctata with a comparison of Carnivorous and Herbivorous Coccinellids

¹ Department of Zoology, University of Lucknow, India

The paper incorporates:

1. The anatomy of the alimentary canal of Coccinella septempunctata as a type of carnivorous Coccinellid.

2. A detailed account of the extrinsic musculature and the nerve-supply of the cephallic stomodaeum, which have been studied in very few insects and never in Coccinellids.

3. The histology of the alimentary canal, specially the midgut, distinguishing four definite types of epithelium, one of which is surprisingly peculiar and has not been described before. This type of epithelium shows apparently two layers of cells, one superimposed over the other, the outer having large, regularly arranged, intercellular vacuoles as have not been described before, at least in the gut of insects.

4. A discussion on the relations of the four types of epithelium to one another, recognizing that this peculiar type of epithelium is just a phase in a unique process of Pro-epithelial Regeneration in the mid-gut epithelium.

5. A comparison of the chief characteristics of the alimentary canal of carnivorous and herbivorous Coccinellids based on the study of seven species of lady-bird beetles.

6. Probable explanations of the differences between the alimentary canals of the carnivorous and herbivorous Coccinellids.