Insects wood digestion

The >3(1 — 4) linkage is particularly stable with respect to hydrolysis. Cellulose cannot be digested by mammals, but some insects (notably termites and wood-eating cockroaches), protozoans and fungi possess celluloses, enzymes that can hydrolyze the /3(1—>4) linkages. Ruminants, such as sheep and cattle, can digest cellulose because of the protozoans that live symbiotically in their digestive system. 

The cardinal rules for proper use of wood can be stated simply keep wood dry, and, if you can t keep it dry, use naturally durable or preservative-treated wood. The first rule is based on a simple biological principle liquid water is needed in wood cells to provide a medium for diffusion of the enzymes or other metabolites by which wood-decomposing organisms digest the wood substance. If there is no liquid water present inside the wood cells, there will be no medium for diffusion, and therefore no biological decomposition except for certain insects of relatively minor importance. Thus, as long as wood is kept below its fiber-saturation point (about 27% of its dry weight), it will never decay. 

Insects eat an incredible variety of foods leaves, roots, plant sap, wood, other insects, other arthropods, blood of birds and mammals, decaying plant material, pollen, nectar, dung, particles of algae, and even fungi. Some, like cockroaches, can digest nearly anything they can get their mandibles (jaws) on, while others must find a particular species of plant to eat or they will die. The disappearance of many butterfly species is due to the loss of their particular host plants as wild areas are cultivated or paved. 

The simplest alkane (that is, with n = 1) is methane CH4, which is a natural product of the anaerobic bacterial decomposition of vegetable matter under water. Because it was first collected in marshes, methane became known as marsh gas. A rather improbable but proven source of methane is termites. When these voracious insects consume wood, the microorganisms that inhabit their digestive system break down cellulose (the major component of wood) into methane, carbon dioxide, and other compounds. An estimated 170 million tons of methane are produced annually by termites It is also produced in some sewage treatment processes. Commercially,... 

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