Hemocyte variations with emphasis to granulocytes and plasmatocytes in grasshoppers collected from the surrounding areas of Pench Tiger Reserve and Nagzira National Park
*Srikanta Guria
Post Graduate Department of Zoology, Barasat Govt. College, Barasat, Kolkata-700124 (India) Email address-guriasrikanta@gmail.com Phone: 91-9830286956
ABSTRACT
In insects, cellular immune responses are performed by granulocytes and plasmatocytes. The author visited Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR), Madhya Pradesh and Nagzira National Park (Maharashtra) during the period of February 23 to 26, 2023. Quadrats, pitfall trap studies and collection of grasshoppers were done along the existing tourist routes and forest rest houses and from surrounding areas of forest. Hemolymph was smeared on glass slides and stained by Giemsa. Presence of lysosomes was indicated by neutral red staining. Activated charcoal particles in normal saline (0·67% NaCl) was used for phagocytosis study. Prohemocytes have been found dominated in all hemocytes. The high abundance of plasmatocytes and granulocytes suggested their importance in the immunity. The presence of vermicytes and podocytes has rarely been found. The granulocytes aggregated after charcoal particles injection but rarely formed large clusters. As a result of these conserved features insects have become popular choices for evaluating and assessing the efficacy of immune cells like hemocytes.