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Journal of Experimental Biology 35,494-519 (1958)
Published by Company of Biologists 1958

The Effect of Temperature on the Water-Proofing Mechanism of an INSECT

J. W. L. BEAMENT ¹

¹ Agricultural Research Council, Unit of Insect Physiology, Department of Zoology Cambridge

1. Previous methods for determining the temperature characteristics of the permeability to water of insect cuticle are criticized on five fundamental points, and in particular it is shown that they do not measure the temperature of the cuticle which will be substantially different from that of the surrounding air.

2. The physical principles for accurate measurement are outlined, involving the accurate control of air temperature and air circulation, the measurement of cuticle temperature and of water loss within a sealed enclosure, and the assessment of true saturation deficiency. Apparatus for meeting these requirements and making these measurements is described.

3. Determinations have been made of the permeability of the cuticle of Periplaneta americana nymphs. When the permeability is plotted against cuticle temperature a sudden and substantial increase in permeability is seen to take place at around 30° C. The temperature at which this change occurs is higher the longer the time which has elapsed since the nymph previously moulted.

4. A method of measuring the permeability of the cuticular grease, when spread as a layer over an isolated water droplet, is described. This layer, whose thickness is of molecular dimensions, has much greater absolute impermeability to water than the thick grease on the insect. It also exhibits a sudden increase in permeability at about 30° C., and the order of change is considerably greater than that found with intact cuticle.

5. The findings are quantitatively compatible with the postulate that, at lower temperatures, the grease on the cockroach consists of an orientated ‘monolayer’ organized by the attraction of its polar groupings for the aqueous cuticle surface underlying it, together with a much greater thickness of unorganized grease above it. In absolute units, the grease is about five times as permeable to water as is the ‘monolayer’, but at the transition temperature the measurements agree with the supposition that the molecular organization of the ‘monolayer’ breaks down into the disorganized state of the major part of the grease with a corresponding increase in permeability.

6. The suggestion that films of grease on water, and the lowermost portion of the grease on the animal, have orientated molecular organization is supported by some observations on the effect of dust particles on the films and by information previously published.

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