Chemical control of moulting in arthropods

Abstract

INSECTS are the only group of arthropods in which the control of moulting is well understood. A group of steroids - the ecdysones, thought to be produced by the prothoracic or ecdysial glands - cause moulting in almost all insect groups in which they have been tested1. Ecdysones isolated from a crustacean2 and from several different plants3 were active in insects4,5. No reports exist of moulting induced by ecdysones in arthropods other than insects, but ecdysterone shortened the period between moults in crayfish which had been induced to moult by removal of their eyestalks6. © 1968 Nature Publishing Group.