Abstract:
This study was conducted to investigate the effect of starvation on major digestive enzymes(protease and lipase). The results showed that the effects of different starvation phases on digestive enzyme activities of male and female adult
Pardosa pseudoannulata were different. In the early stage of starvation, the protease activities in female spiders (0-12 h) and male spiders (0-4 h) were promoted by starvation treatment, which increased by 36.8% and 35.8%, respectively, compared with that in the 0 h of starvation. However the protease activities in later stage were inhibited, but the difference was not significant.Lipase activities of female and male adult spiders decreased with the time of starvation.In the initial stage of starvation (0-4 h), the starvation treatment had a great inhibitory effect.The lipase activity of female adult spiders was 39.6% lower than that treated with starvation for 0 h, with a significant difference, while the lipase activity of male adult spiders was 15.3% lower than that treated with starvation for 0 h, with no significant difference. However in the later stage of starvation treatment, little effect on the lipase activities of female and male adult spiders was observed.Treated for the same starvation time, the activities of protease and lipase of female spiders were significantly higher than those of male spiders.