Physiological adaptations in Coleoptera on Spitsbergen

Abstract

Metabolic rates and Q10 values were determined for three species of Spitsbergen Coleoptera, Amara quenseli, Simplocaria metallica and Rhynchaenus flagellum. The beetles had metabolic rates which were elevated compared to values of Coleoptera from other regions. This is interpreted as an adaptation to the prevailing low temperatures and short activity period on Spitsbergen. A. quenseli had rates of water loss comparable to values of beetles in temperate and tropical xeric habitats, indicating that the habitat of the beetles on Spitsbergen at least occasionally is xeric. Determination of cold‐hardiness parameters such as supercooling point and haemolymph melting point of A. quenseli beetles revealed that the beetles had values corresponding to those of active insects in the temperate and tropical region. They had no thermal hysteresis factors. Thus, during summer they show no physiological adaptations to cold.

Climatic variability and hemispheric differences in insect cold tolerance: support from southern Africa

“…The new data we present are heavily biased towards cockroaches and tenebrionid beetles, and therefore suffer in some respects from phylogenetic non‐independence (see Harvey & Pagel 1991). Nonetheless, the beetle families Tenebrionidae and Carabidae include species that employ each strategy (Miller 1969, 1978; Strømme, Ngari & Zachariassen 1986; Salin, Vernon & Vannier 2003), and although all of the cockroaches from alpine and cold‐temperate habitats in both hemispheres that have been studied are freeze tolerant (Duman 1979; Hamilton, Mullins & Orcutt 1985; Tanaka & Tanaka 1997; Block, Wharton & Sinclair 1998), some domestic species are known to have poor cold tolerance (Guthrie & Tindall 1968). Moreover, the diversity and abundance of cockroaches in the alpine zones of New Zealand (Johns 1966), South Africa (B. J. Sinclair, unpublished) and Australia (Green 1994) appear to be high compared with the northern hemisphere (Guthrie & Tindall 1968).…”

Metabolic cold adaptation in insects: a large‐scale perspective

“…Among terrestrial arthropods, MCA has been reported from beetles (e.g. Aunaas, Baust & Zachariassen 1983; Strømme, Ngari & Zachariassen 1986; Schultz, Quinlan & Hadley 1992), grasshoppers (Chappell 1983; Massion 1983) and polar microarthropods (Block 1977; Block & Young 1978; Young 1979). However, many other studies have suggested that the concept cannot be upheld for both empirical and theoretical reasons.…”