In order to ascertain whether similar cellulolytic systems were involved in activity during development, we used zymograms with gut fluids from different instars to detect proteins having activity against CMC substrate (Fig. 1C). In these assays, we detected a similar pattern of cellulase activities in samples from different developmental stages. In particular, four main cellulase activities, corresponding to
proteins of 68-, 56-, 45-, and 27-kDa in molecular mass, were observed for all samples