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Elucidating mechanisms for insect body size: partial support for the oxygen-dependent induction of moulting hypothesis
Stockholm University, Faculty of Science, Department of Zoology.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-4560-6271
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Number of Authors: 62018 (English)In: Journal of Experimental Biology, ISSN 0022-0949, E-ISSN 1477-9145, Vol. 221, no 2, article id UNSP jeb166157Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Body size is a key life history trait, and knowledge of its mechanistic basis is crucial in life history biology. Such knowledge is accumulating for holometabolous insects, whose growth is characterised and body size affected by moulting. According to the oxygen-dependent induction of moulting (ODIM) hypothesis, moult is induced at a critical mass at which oxygen demand of growing tissues overrides the supply from the tracheal respiratory system, which principally grows only at moults. Support for the ODIM hypothesis is controversial, partly because of a lack of proper data to explicitly test the hypothesis. The ODIM hypothesis predicts that the critical mass is positively correlated with oxygen partial pressure (P-O2) and negatively with temperature. To resolve the controversy that surrounds the ODIM hypothesis, we rigorously test these predictions by exposing penultimate-instar Orthosia gothica (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) larvae to temperature and moderate P-O2 manipulations in a factorial experiment. The relative mass increment in the focal instar increased along with increasing P-O2, as predicted, but there was only weak suggestive evidence of the temperature effect. Probably owing to a high measurement error in the trait, the effect of P-O2 on the critical mass was sex specific; high P-O2 had a positive effect only in females, whereas low P-O2 had a negative effect only in males. Critical mass was independent of temperature. Support for the ODIM hypothesis is partial because of only suggestive evidence of a temperature effect on moulting, but the role of oxygen in moult induction seems unambiguous. The ODIM mechanism thus seems worth considering in body size analyses.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2018. Vol. 221, no 2, article id UNSP jeb166157
Keywords [en]
Critical mass, Growth rate, Hyperoxia, Hypoxia, Larval instars, Orthosia gothica
National Category
Biological Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-153878DOI: 10.1242/jeb.166157ISI: 000424076300005OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-153878DiVA, id: diva2:1188414
Available from: 2018-03-07 Created: 2018-03-07 Last updated: 2022-02-28Bibliographically approved

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Gotthard, Karl

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