Endogenous and environmental factors influence the dietary fractionation of 13C and 15N in hissing cockroaches Gromphadorhina portentosa.

Since DeNiro and Epstein's discovery that the (13)C and (15)N isotopic signatures of animals approximate those of their respective diets, the measurement of stable isotope signatures has become an important tool for ecologists studying the diets of wild animals. This study used Madagascar hissing cockroaches (Gromphadorhina portentosa) to examine several preexisting hypotheses about the relationship between the isotopic composition of an animal and its diet. Contrary to my predictions, the results revealed that the tissues of adult cockroaches raised for two generations on a diet of known isotopic composition did not demonstrate enrichment of heavy stable isotopes. Moreover, the (15)N signatures of cockroaches were neither influenced by periods of rapid growth (i.e., 300-fold increase in dry body mass over 120 d) nor by imposed periods of starvation lasting up to 80 d. The offspring born to mothers raised on known diets were enriched in (15)N. Diet-switching experiments showed that turnover times of (13)C were highly correlated with age and ranged from 9 to 10 d to 60 to 75 d in subadults and adults, respectively. Adults subjected to diet switches differed from the subadults in that the adults achieved equilibrated isotopic signatures that were shifted approximately 1.0 per thousand toward their respective original diets. Lipid fractions of adult cockroaches averaged 2.9 per thousand more depleted in (13)C than in lipid-free fractions, but no changes in (13)C were observed in aging adults. Exposure to reduced ambient temperature from 33 degrees C to 23 degrees C over 120 d did not influence isotopic signatures of tissues. Overall, the results of this study reveal that different endogenous and exogenous factors can influence the isotopic signatures of cockroaches. These findings reinforce the need to conduct controlled studies to further examine environmental factors that influence the relationships between the isotopic signatures of animals and their diets.