Data: The transition form diet to blood: exploring the insect haemolymph nutrient pool

Nutrition is vital to health, but whilst the link between diet and body nutritional composition is well explored in humans and other vertebrates, this information not well understood in insects, despite the vital roles they play in ecosystems, and their increasing use as experimental models. Here we used Nutritional Geometry to explore the relationship between ingested nutrients and the nutritional profile of haemolymph in Spodoptera littoralis caterpillars. We ask whether blood nutrients are maintained homeostatically in the face of variable nutritional intake, or if regulation is more flexible for some nutrients than others (allostasis), which allows animals to adapt to stress by responding in a way that prioritises efficiency of responses in the face of trade-offsCaterpillars were placed on one of 20 diets, systematically varying in their nutrient ratios (protein: carbohydrate) and density (calorie content), and their consumption measured. After 48 hours, caterpillars were bled and the macronutrient (protein, carbohydrates and lipids) and nutrient metabolite (amino acids and simple sugars) content of the haemolymph was measured.Proteins comprised 93% of the haemolymph macronutrient pool on average and their concentration increased with protein eaten. The amino acid (AA) pool was dominated by 5 AAs and the total pool increased with total nutrient intake. However, the ratio of essential to non-essential AAs increased as the proportion of protein consumed increased. Carbohydrates were tightly controlled, increasing only on the most extreme carbohydrate intakes. Simple sugars were dominated by glucose and trehalose, and overall, the simple sugar pool showed high levels of homeostasis.Rather than strict homeostasis of blood nutritional properties, an allostatic model seemed to be a better fit for blood nutrient regulation in this generalist herbivore. Given the range of fitness related processes affected by the haemolymph, future studies should examine the physiological impacts of blood nutrient variation on reproduction, growth and response to infection, and the trade-offs between them.