Resting metabolism and critical thermal maxima of vespine wasps (Vespula sp.)

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• 作者：Helmut Kä ; fer ^{helmut.kaefer@uni-graz.at} ; Helmut Kovac ; ^{he.kovac@uni-graz.at} ; Anton Stabentheiner ^{anton.stabentheiner@uni-graz.at}
• 关键词：Wasp ; Respiration ; Thermolimit respirometry ; Resting metabolism ; Temperature
• 刊名：Journal of Insect Physiology
• 出版年：2012
• 期刊代码：92_00221910
• 类别：bio
• 出版时间：May, 2012
• 卷：58
• 期：5
• 页码：679-689
• 文件大小：1051 K

摘要

Vespine wasps are known for their high endothermic capacity. Endothermic activity is directly linked to respiration. However, knowledge on wasp respiration is sparse and almost nothing is known about their resting metabolism.

We investigated the yellowjackets鈥?CO₂ production in a flow-through respirometer chamber overnight. Endothermic and behavioral activity was observed by real-time infrared thermography. Most resting wasps were ectothermic or only slightly endothermic (thoracic temperature excess against abdomen < 0.6 掳C). In the investigated temperature range (T_a = 2.9-42.4 掳C) mean CO₂ production rate of resting wasps increased steeply according to an exponential function, from 5.658 渭l g^鈭? min^鈭? at 8.3 掳C to 8.504 渭l g^鈭? min^鈭? at 20.2 掳C, 58.686 渭l g^鈭? min^鈭? at 35.3 掳C and 102.84 渭l g^鈭? min^鈭? at 40 掳C. The wasps鈥?respiratory critical thermal maximum (CT_max), marking the upper edge of their viable temperature range, was 45.3 掳C. The respiratory CT_max did not differ significantly from the activity CT_max of 44.9 掳C. CT_max values were considerably below that of honeybees (48.9 and 49.0 掳C for respiration and activity, respectively). This allows honeybees to kill wasps by heat-balling.

Comparison with other arthropods showed that vespine wasps are among the insects with the highest mass-specific resting metabolic rate and the steepest increase of metabolism with ambient temperature.