3.Tatsuya Mishima（Faculty of Social and Cultural Studies / Academic fellow）

Relationship between C/N ratio of their habitat in scarabaeoid larvae and decomposition abilities against decayed wood and/or humus

Lucanid larvae mainly inhabit and utilize rotten wood and/or humus. They also show a food preference against the types and stages of decay at a genus level. Since their preference is thought to be related to the kinds and the activity of enzyme, I tried to reveal the relationship between C/N ratio in their preferred habitat and digestive enzymatic abilities against CM-cellulose, β-1,4-xylan, and β-1,3-glucan in the larval midgut of some species of Lucanidae and Trypoxylus dichotomus. The results indicated that two correlations were observed between C/N ratio and each glycanase and glycosidase against CM-cellulose and β-1,3-glucan, respectively.