An Ultrastructural Study on the Desert Locust (Schistocerca gregaria) as Affected by Tebufenozide (RH-5992)

Abstract

Tebufenozide exhibited some histopathological effects on the integument of last instar nymphs of desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria Forsk) such as: detachment of the cuticle from epidermis, undistinguishable epicuticle. Tebufenozide treatments affected the ultrastructural configuration of thoracic muscles such as disrupted organization of A, I and H bands and the degeneration of Z disc varied from one half of the disc to small central or peripheral degenerated areas. Tebufenozide treatments resulted in the loss of normal architecture of the majority of mid-gut epithelial cells, which had dwarf and deformed microvilli. The most important ultrastructural changes in the intracellular organelles by the action of Tebufenozide, as shown in the electron micrographs, were elongation of mitochondria, which appeared with prominent cristae, the lysosomes were supposedly autophagic, Golgi bodies had a bullet shape and the cytoplasm contained scattered granules.