insect excretion (1 Viewer)

[zoci2288]

hey guys i had to do a report on fresh and salt waterfish excretion..and a another classmate had to do insects..the info she had didnt make sense at all and my teacher hasnt bothered to give an explaination..iv looked in several textbooks but have found nothing on insect excretion..i was wondering if somebody can help out..thanks heaps

 

[fat_penguin]

well basically a lot of insects get their water from food only, even like wood boring insects, so naturally they can't afford to lose a lot of water.. basically they keep reabsorbing water as the waste travels through their body, and in the end they excrete what's essentially a paste - their nitrogenous wastes are in the form of uric acid, which is even less toxic than urea (land animals) and definately less toxic than ammonia (freshwater fish) .. so cause it's less toxic, the insect doesn't have to remove the waste as much, and therefore it conserves water..

thats the basics, hope it helps!