Abstract
1. The effects of oxygen tensions and carbon monoxide on the respiration of silkworm eggs (Boynbyx mori L.) were studied.
2. In the case of diapausing eggs oxygen consumption was dependent on the oxygen tensions ranging from 1 to 99 per cent, and was 3.4 fold of normal rate at 99 per cent (Fig. 1). Developing postdiapause eggs consumed oxygen at a uniform rate at oxygen tensions from 20 to 99 percent, but below 20 per cent the oxygen consumption gradually decreased. Newly hatched larvae respired at a constant rate at oxygen tensions ranging from 1 to 99 per cent (Fig. 2).
3. The respiration of the diapausing eggs was not affected by carbon monoxide, but the oxygen consumption of the developing post-diapause eggs was inhibited photo-reversibly by carbon monoxide (Fig. 3, 4, 5).
4. On the basis of this and other data, it was imagined that the enzymes of flavoprotein system and cytochrome system functioned as principal terminaloxidases in diapause and post-diapause eggs respectively.
