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Journal of Experimental Biology 28,271-280 (1951)
Published by Company of Biologists 1951

The Body Temperature of Woodlice

E. B. EDNEY ¹

¹ Zoology Department, University of Birmingham

1. Measurements by means of thermocouples, accurate to 0.1°C., were made of the body temperature of the woodlice Armadillidium, Porcellio, Oniscus and Ligia, and of the cockroach Blatta, both alive and dead, in a stream of saturated or dry air at both 20 and 37°C.

2. No difference in temperature depression was found between living and dead woodlice, and in all the animals used there was, after equilibration, no difference greater than 0.1°C. between the air temperature and body temperature if the air were saturated with water vapour.

3. In dry air, the body temperature of all the animals except Ligia settled down after at most 25 min. to a steady temperature which was lower than that of the surrounding air. The body temperature of Ligia continued to rise slowly for at least 2 hr., though remaining well below that of the environment.

4. After 30 min. in dry air at 20 and 37°C. respectively, mean temperature depressions (of at least three readings at each temperature for each species) were, in degrees centigrade: Ligia, 2.6 and 6.8; Oniscus, 1.5 and 2.7; Parcellio, 0.4 and 1.3; Armadillidium, 0.5 and 1.8; and the cockroach Blatta, 0.7 and 2.4. The order of the species in this respect is substantially the same as their order in respect of evaporation rate, which was established previously.

5. Certain anomalies which appear when these figures are compared with previously established figures for insects are probably the result of differences in permeability of the integument and in the site of water loss. The ability to evaporate water rapidly, and thus to cool the body, may be of survival value when woodlice are exposed to high temperatures for short periods, particularly in littoral forms which may well have been intermediate in the evolution of terricolous from maricolous isopods.