Abstract
The relative numbers of fourteen microbial morphotypes in transmission electron micrographs of the hindgut of a cockroach, Eublaberus posticus, were counted and their distribution was analyzed statistically. The microbiota of three wall-associated regions (the anterior paunch, the posterior paunch, and the black band region) was clearly different from that of the gut lumen. The three wall fractions were also significantly different from each other. Only one of the fourteen types, prosthecate bacteria, appeared to be distributed randomly in the four fractions. The five main wall-associated morphotypes individually constituted up to 41% of the microbes in some micrographs. They included one type with the characteristic morphology of Methanospirillum. Six morphotypes rarely made up over 2% of the population, but were consistently present. The numbers of the remaining three morphotypes were quite variable between micrographs and between individual insects, but when present often made up 5–10% of the population.
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Cruden, D.L., Markovetz, A.J. Relative numbers of selected bacterial forms in different regions of the cockroach hindgut. Arch. Microbiol. 129, 129–134 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00455348
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00455348