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Journal of Experimental Biology 15,555-563 (1938)
Published by Company of Biologists 1938

The Temperature And Humidity Relations Of The Cockroach : V. Humidity Preference

D. L. GUNN ¹ and C. A. COSWAY ¹

¹ Zoology Department, University of Birmingham

1. In a diffusion gradient of humidity at uniform temperature, some cockroaches (Blatta orientalis, L.) show a tendency to spend more time in the drier region. Other individuals appear to be indifferent to the stimulus of air humidity.

2. On desiccation, there is a tendency for cockroaches to become hygro-positive.

3. In a temperature gradient, those individuals which react to humidity have a slightly but significantly higher preferred temperature in somewhat moist air than they have in dry air.

4. It seems, then, that the observed preferred temperature represents a kind of balance between a pure temperature reaction and a humidity reaction. The change in humidity reaction resulting from desiccation is qualitatively satisfactory to explain the fall in preferred temperature which occurs at the same time.