This proposal targets the hormonal bases of insect egg development and subsequent maternal behavior. Insects have been widely used as model systems to study basic mechanisms of hormone action, and in the isolation and identification of key regulatory proteins that hold promise in the development of biorational pesticides. This investigations utilizes the ring-legged earwig. Anisolabis annulipes. This relatively primitive insect is an excellent model system for investigating the hormonal regulation of egg development and reproductive behaviors because it exhibits discrete cycles of ovarian development, pronounced maternal behavior, precisely timed juvenile dispersal. My specific goals are to investigate: (1) the biochemical identity of juvenile hormone, a primary reproductive hormone produce by corpora allata, an essential step to future experiments; (2) the hormonal basis of maternal care and the degree to which it is coupled to the cycle of egg development by manipulation of levels of hemolymph (blood) proteins that specifically degrade juvenile establishment of a direct method for determining rates of juvenile hormone synthesis, and subsequently determining the effects of hormone application and of denervation of corpora allata on juvenile hormone production. The final stage of the investigation will be to pursue stimulatory/inhibitory effects of the brain on corpus allatum activity.
