Figure 2.

Metabolic impact after alkaloid ingestion in R. prolixus. (a,b) Examples of different CO₂ emission patterns observed accordingly to the alkaloid ingested: (a) discontinuous gas exchange cycle (DGC) following QUI ingestion, (b) continuous gas exchange (CGE) observed after THE ingestion. Locomotor activity (black line) and CO₂ emission rate (green line) traces are plotted as function of time (minutes). (c) Variation coefficient (VC) depicted in function of the ingested solutions and the post-ingestion time (T1: 5 min, T2: 3–5 h). AS and QUI showed higher VC values (even at different post-feeding times) than CAF and THE, these results quantitatively confirmed a DGC pattern for AS and QUI and a CGE pattern for CAF and THE. (d) Average standard metabolic rate (SMR) for the ingested solutions at two post-ingestion times as in (c). Following CAF and THE ingestion insects significantly increased their SMR with respect to AS and QUI groups. VC and SMR are expressed as means ± SE. Ten individuals for each treatment were assayed. Lowercase letters represented post-ingestion time comparisons and uppercase letters indicated differences among experimental solutions.