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Regulation of nutritional intake by herbivorous insects often leads to optimal performance. When given choices, beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua, caterpillars selected a diet with a protein to digestible carbohydrate ratio of 22p:20c. Restriction to carbohydrate-biased diets led to increased mortality and developmental time. On protein-biased diets, caterpillars possessed metabolic strategies to maintain optimal performance. / Caterpillar glucose oxidase (GOX), which catalyzes the oxidation of glucose, may be a pre-ingestive mechanism to cope with excess dietary carbohydrates. GOX activity was highest in the labial salivary glands of 4th instar caterpillars and was higher in caterpillars reared on a meridic artificial diet (AD) compared to those fed Medicago truncatula. Following transfer from plants, labial salivary GOX activity increased with time spent on AD suggesting that a dietary factor is involved in this enzyme's regulation. Dietary carbohydrate levels do not appear to regulate GOX activity; however nutritional content may play a role its regulation.