Diet and Metabolism in Bean Beetles

 

Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 2013, Volume 34

Greg Q. Butcher & Scott E. Chirhart

Abstract

Here we describe a lab exercise to determine which nutritive molecules influence adult bean beetle (Callosobruchus maculates) metabolism. The project as described requires approximately two hours for setup and one, two-three hour lab session for introduction, experimentation, discussion, and analysis. Primary objectives of the project were to have students test hypotheses related to the influence of different nutritive molecules on CO2 production in bean beetles and use the resulting data to generate a novel follow-up experiment(s). Ideally, this lab would follow lectures in which students had learned about different macromolecules, their constituents, and the primary metabolic functions of each.

Keywords:  metabolism, arthropods

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (2012)