Journal
AQUATIC INSECTS
Volume 34, Issue -, Pages 57-76Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/01650424.2012.643026
Keywords
diving beetles; respiration; submersion; pores; surface tension
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Some small diving beetles can survive submerged through weeks and months, because they can extract oxygen, dissolved in the water, through respiratory pores in their integument. An air flux from the outside to the inside through the respiratory pores has been demonstrated. All diving beetles capable of such pore respiration are small, but not all small diving beetles have pore respiration. With increasing size, more and more of the surface must be covered by respiratory pores to meet the increasing demand of oxygen. In running water species the pore-respiration mode is regarded as an adaptation to life in current exposed substrates, thus they avoid the risk of being swept away during frequent surface visits. In stagnant water species the pore respiration mode reduces the risk of falling victim to pelagic predators. The submersion tolerant species can switch to surface respiration, e.g. during low oxygen content. The pore respiratory mechanism is believed to be a specialised plastron. The oxygen flux through the scattered, small respiratory pore area may be enhanced by a functional thinning of the boundary layer.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available