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- Title
Tracheal respiration in insects visualized with synchrotron x-ray imaging.
- Authors
Westneat, Mark W; Betz, Oliver; Blob, Richard W; Fezzaa, Kamel; Cooper, W James; Lee, Wah-Keat
- Abstract
Insects are known to exchange respiratory gases in their system of tracheal tubes by using either diffusion or changes in internal pressure that are produced through body motion or hemolymph circulation. However, the inability to see inside living insects has limited our understanding of their respiration mechanisms. We used a synchrotron beam to obtain x-ray videos of living, breathing insects. Beetles, crickets, and ants exhibited rapid cycles of tracheal compression and expansion in the head and thorax. Body movements and hemolymph circulation cannot account for these cycles; therefore, our observations demonstrate a previously unknown mechanism of respiration in insects analogous to the inflation and deflation of vertebrate lungs.
- Publication
Science (New York, N.Y.), 2003, Vol 299, Issue 5606, p558
- ISSN
1095-9203
- Publication type
Journal Article
- DOI
10.1126/science.1078008