Abstract
IT is now established1–3 that the hard cuticle of insects owes its rigidity and to some extent its colour to the tanning of its protein constituents by an orthoquinone. Similar tanning takes place to a less extent in Crustacea4. This type of hardening is not, however, confined to the Arthropoda, for Stephenson5 has shown that in the Trematoda the egg capsules may be similarly hardened, and the following observations on the chætæ of the earthworm Allolobophora longa, suggested by their amber colour, indicate that they, too are hardened by quinone tanning.
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References
Pryor, M. G. M., Proc. Roy. Soc., B, 128, 393 (1940).
Dennell, R., Proc. Roy. Soc., B, 134, 79 (1947).
Fraenkel, G., and Rudall, K. M., Proc. Roy. Soc., B, 134, 111 (1947).
Dennell, R., Proc. Roy. Soc., B, 134, 485 (1947).
Stephenson, W., Parasit., 38, 128 (1947).
Goodrich, E. S., Quart. J. Micr. Sci., 39, 51 (1896).
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DENNELL, R. Earthworm Chætæ. Nature 164, 370 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/164370a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/164370a0
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