Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T03:27:52.851Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Critical Review of the Studies on the So-called Stink or Repugnatorial Glands of Heteroptera with Further Comments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2012

A. P. Gupta
Affiliation:
3898 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver 8, B.C.

Extract

The discovery that most plant-bugs emit, when disturbed, a kind of highly penetrant and nauseous odour is not of recent origin. However, it has since then been thought that the presence of such odoriferous scents exists probably in direct adaptation to the needs and habits of their possessors. The frequent occurrence of such an odour consequently stirred the curiosity of the earlier workers to determine the exact source of this scent. No documentary account of such an attempt was, however, available until 1833 when Leon Dufour published an account of the anatomy and physiology of Hemiptera. It was thus revealed by him that the real source of the odour was actually a gland, on each side, in the ventral part of the metathorax, opening to the exterior by means of very small apertures, lying one on each side of the metasternum between the second and third pairs of legs. He worked on many hemipterous bugs, and in Cimex lectularius mentions, for the first time, in addition to the glands, a median reservoir which may be oval or round and membranous in appearance. Dufour's publication gave further impetus to the following workers, and thereafter we find persistent attempts having heen made from time to time to work out the morphology of the glands. It may be mentioned that in view of the later discoveries of the chemical nature and the odour of the secretion in various insects, the use of the term Scent-apparatus would be more precise than stink or repugnatorial scent-apparatus, employed by most of the workers up to this day, for the secretion is not repugnant in many insects; in some it has even an agreeable odour like that of ripe bananas or ether. Brindley (1930) also seems to prefer the use of the term Scent-apparatus.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Entomological Society of Canada 1961

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bordas, L. 1898. Erade des glandes défensives des quelques Coléoptères. C.R.Ac.Sc. 127: 18241825.Google Scholar
Bordas, L. 1899. Recherches sur les glandes anales des Carabidae. C.R.Ac.Sc. 127: 248249.Google Scholar
Bordas, L. 1901. Les glandes défensives ou odorantes de Blattes. C.R.Ac.Sc. 132: 13521354.Google Scholar
Bordas, L. 1905. Sur les glandes (salivaires, céphalique et métathoracique) de quelques Hémiptères. C.R.Ac.Sc. 140: 690.Google Scholar
Brindley, M. D. H. 1929. On the repugnatorial glands of Corixa. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lona.: 713.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brindley, M. D. H. 1930. On the metasternal scent-glands of certain Heteroptera. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 2: 199208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brindley, M. D. H. 1933. The development of thoracic stink glands in Heteroptera. Proc. Roy. Ent. Soc. 8: 12.Google Scholar
Carayon, J. 1948. Dimorphisme sexuel des glandes odorantes métathoraciques chez quelques Hémiptères. C.R.Ac.Sc. 227: 303305.Google Scholar
Carayon, J. 1950. Caractères anatomiques et position systematique des Hémiptères Nabidae (note preliminaire). Bull. mus. Nat. d'histoire Nat. (2) 22: 99100.Google Scholar
Carius, L. 1860. Ann. Chem. Pharmacol.: 114.Google Scholar
Dufour, L. 1833. Recherches anatomiques et physiologiques sur les Hémiptères. C.R.Ac.Sc. 5: 129462.Google Scholar
Dupuis, C. 1947. Review of literature on dorsal abdominal glands. Feuille Nat. Parts. (N.S.) 2: 1321.Google Scholar
Dupuis, C. 19481949. Pentatomidae, dorsal abdominal glands. C.R. Be Congr. Int. Zool. 471472.Google Scholar
Hamilton, M. A. 1931. The morphology of Nepa. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 10681136.Google Scholar
Hase, A. 1917. Die Bettwanze (C. lectularius), ihr Lebenund ihre Bekampfung. Zeitschr. f. Angew. Entomol. 4: 1144.Google Scholar
Johansson, A. S. 1957. The functional anatomy of the metathoracic scent glands of the milk-bug, Oncopeltus fasciaras Dallas. (Hemiptera-Lygeidae). Norsk, Ent. Tidsskr. Oslo. 10: 95109.Google Scholar
Kemper, H. 1929. Scent glands of C. lectularius. Z. morph. Okol. 15: 524545.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kunckel, M. J. 1866. Recherches sur les organes de sécretion chez les insectes de l'ordre d'Hémiptères. C.R.Ac.Sc. 63: 433436.Google Scholar
Kunckel, M. J. 1886. Recherches sur les glandes odorifiques des insectes Hémiptères. Ass. Fr. Avan. Sc. 15: 528532.Google Scholar
Kunckel, M. J. 1886. La punaise de lit et ses appareils odoriferantes. C.R. Soc. Biol. 3: 375377.Google Scholar
Kunckel, M. J. 1895. Etude comparée des appareils odorifiques dans les differents groupes d'Hémiptères. C.R.Ac.Sc. 120: 10021004.Google Scholar
Landois, L. 1868. Anatomie der Bettwanze Cimex lectularius, mit Berucksichtigung verwandter Hemipterengeschlecter. Zeitsch. f. wiss. Zool. 18: 206224.Google Scholar
Leidy, J. 1847. History and anatomy of Hemipterous genus Belostoma, J. Acad. Nat. Sc. Phil. 2: 5767.Google Scholar
Leidy, J. 1849. Odoriferous glands of Invertebrates. Proc. Acad. Phil. 4: 234236.Google Scholar
Locy, R. 1884. Amer. Nat. 18.Google Scholar
Mayer, P. 1874. Anatomie von Pyrrhocoris apterus. Reichert und de Bois-Reymond's Archiv. f. Anat. physiol. etc. 7: 313347.Google Scholar
Moody, D. L. 1930. Amer. Ent. Soc. Amer. 23: 81104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muir, F. 1907. Life history of Tessaratoma papillosa by J. C. Kershaw. With notes on the stridulating organ and stink glands by F. Muir. Trans. Ent. Sac. 253258.Google Scholar
Murray, C. H. 1914. Notes on the anatomy of bed-bus, (Acanthia lectukria.) Parasitology. 7: 278321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poisson, R. 1924. Contributions à l'étude des Hémiptères aquatiques. Bull. Biol. 58: 131134.Google Scholar
Poisson, R. 1938. Etude systematique et biologique des principales espèces paléarctiques. Ann. Soc. Ent. France. 107: 81120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Puri, I. M. 1924. Studies on the anatomy of Cimex lectularius. II. The stink organs. Parasitology, 16: 268278.Google Scholar
Southwood, T. R. E. 1955. The morphology of the salivary glands of terrestrial heteroptera (Geocorisae) and its bearing on classification. Tijdschrift voor Entomologie. 98: 7784.Google Scholar