The Action of Fumigants on Insects: Iii. The Fate of Hydrogen Cyanide in Sitophilus Granarius ( L .)

A study of the fate of hydrogen cyanide in fumigated S. granarius adults, using carbon-14 labelled cyanide, showed that this poison became generally distributed and combined with various metabolites. Labelled carbon was found in three compounds of a trichloroacetic acid extract and in one compound of the hydrolyzed proteins and in the body fats. Only a very small amount of the carbon was excreted from the insect's body as carbon dioxide, but a considerable amount was found in the excrement; nine radioactive compounds were isolated from the water-soluble fraction of the excrement. One of these, a polypeptide, contained nearly half of the total labelled carbon that was excreted and most of the activity was present in the aspartic acid portion of the compound; thus it appears that this insect can not only excrete amino acids but also it can synthesize and use them for the elimination of cyanide from their bodies.