XXIV. On the respiration of insects

• Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 1836
• Subjects: Carbonic acid
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1836.0026; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstl.1836.0026

It has been long proved by many physiologists that insects produce the same changes in the atmosphere during respiration as other animals. Reaumur, Bonnet, Scheele, Huber, Edwards, Audouin, and others, have all shown that the results of the respiration of atmospheric air by insects are the production of carbonic acid gas, and the loss of oxygen; but these results vary in degree in different genera,—in the different states of the same insects, —and at different periods of the year. My object, therefore, in this paper will be to show the relative quantity of air consumed by different tribes of insects in their different states, —the power which particular insects have of supporting existence in different media, -—and the relation which this power and the consumption of air bear to the comparative volume of the structures concerned. The life of an insect has been considered by naturalists to have three distinct periods, the larva, the pupa, and the perfect state; but each of these periods, in so far as the functions of the different structures of the body are concerned, although tending only to the production of the perfect individual, is in itself a distinct condition. Thus the respiration, circulation, temperature, food, and locality of the insect are in general all different in the different states. In the earliest period of the larva state the respiration is much feebler than when the animal has nearly arrived at its full size, and the circulation of its blood is much quicker; but the relative quantity of its food is much greater, in proportion to its bulk, in the latter than at the earlier period, and its power of generating heat increases as it approaches to its adult condition, In the pupa state also there is a change in all these functions. In many genera the insect ceases to eat; its circulation becomes slower than at any other period; its respiration is greatly diminished in frequency and volume; and its power of generating and of maintaining a temperature of body above that of the surrounding medium, ...