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The Function of Haemoglobin in Relation to Filter Feeding in Leaf-Mining Chironomid Larvae
1 Bedford College, University of London
1. The filter feeding of four species of leaf-mining chironomid larvae with and without functional haemoglobin was studied at different oxygen concentrations.
2. Two red species, Glyptotendipes pallens and Endochironomus dispar, showed at low oxygen concentrations a reduced amount of filter feeding after treatment with carbon monoxide (to render the haemoglobin functionless). The blood pigment is therefore of significance to these larvae in increasing the amount of feeding possible at low oxygen concentrations.
3. Two pale species, Endochironomus tendens and E. albipennis, however, despite their having little haemoglobin, were nevertheless capable of filter feeding in water poor in oxygen.
4. The capacity to live anaerobically was greatest in the red species.
5. In potassium cyanide solutions, on the other hand, the red Glyptotendipes pallens larvae were more rapidly affected than the pale Endochironomus tendens larvae. It is tentatively suggested, therefore, that the ability of the larvae poor in haemoglobin to filter feed at low oxygen concentrations may be due to their possession of respiratory enzyme systems, alternative to the cyanide-sensitive type, which are efficient at low oxygen pressures.
Submitted on July 4, 1950
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  R. E. Weber and S. N. Vinogradov Nonvertebrate Hemoglobins: Functions and Molecular Adaptations Physiol Rev, April 1, 2001; 81(2): 569 - 628. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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