58 VV. Vidhu and DA. Evans
that in mammalian body (Evans and Kaleysaraj
1992 ; Subhramanyam et al. 1998 ).
Within a period of 30 min of continuous bite,
the glucose content of head and thorax of O. sma-
ragdina showed a slight decrease but was signifi-
cantly different from control and at the same time
no significant change on the contents of glycogen
was observed. This may be due to the difference
in energy metabolism between insects and
mammals. The content of lactic acid in head and
thorax also showed no significant difference from
control. In mouse, 30 min of swimming exercise
caused a sharp elevation in the content of lactic
acid together with sharp decline in the contents of
both glycogen and glucose (Evans et al. 2002 ). In
insects, all the tissues are richly supplied with di-
rect supply of oxygen by elaborate tracheal system
with a pair of lip-like openings called spiracles,
which lead to a tree-like series of tubes called tra-
cheoles, which repeatedly divide into numerous
microscopic ends and penetrate into individual
body cells. Unlike vertebrate systems, this gives
every insect cell a continuous airline to the atmo-
sphere and hence chances of anaerobic glycolysis
will be negligibly low (Candy and Kilby 1959 )
and that also might be the reason for no accumu-
lation of lactic acid in the worker ants. Zebe and
McShan ( 1957 ) have studied the lactic acid me-
tabolism in different orders of Class Insecta and
showed that glycolysis is unimportant in insects
due to the peculiarity of respiratory system.
The content of acetylcholine showed a sharp
elevation in head and in thorax after biting. In-
sects on treatment with organophosphorus in-
secticides also showed a sharp elevation of ace-
tylcholine and subsequent paralysis (Evans and
Kaleysaraj 1991 ). The observed immobility or
lack of co-ordination in movements of ants after
continuous bite may be due to accumulation of
acetylcholine in body. Enzymes are involved in
all the chemical reactions within living organ-
isms. Respiration, growth, muscle contraction,
digestion, nerve conduction and so on, all are
enzyme mediated reactions. The AsAT and AlAT
are the principal enzymes concerned with non-
essential amino acid metabolism and gluconeo-
genesis and interrelates carbohydrate and protein
metabolism by catalyzing the incorporation of
pyruvate and oxaloacetate from alanine and as-
partate, respectively (Wilson 1973 ; Ortem and
Neuhas 1982 ). Sharp decrease in content of total
FAA together with decrease in content of ni-
trogenous waste materials and almost complete
suppression of transaminase activity strongly
supports the formation of new protein. Hyper
protienemia within a short period of 30 min of
continuous biting was evidenced by additional
protein bands in electrophorogram (Fig. 4 ).
Aggressive defence strategies observed in
social Hymenoptera, social aphids and termites
demonstrate that defensive behaviour are usually
detrimental to the defenders but facilitate the sur-
vival of the reproductives and brood within the
nest. In honey bees, the barbed sting of worker
bees eviscerate and kills the workers after sting-
ing, suggesting that the cost of altruism to in-
dividual is high but trivial to the entire colony
(Vincent and Ring 2003 ). All the above men-
tioned biochemical mechanisms acted in favour
of worker ants to eliminate the intruder and to
sacrifice their life for the sake of the colony.References
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