EVAPORATIVE COOLING IN INSECTS

Insects commonly use behavior to avoid the heat stress and consequent water loss of hot environments, It has been assumed by many to be impo ssible or impractical for insects to employ evaporative cooling, Despi te this assumption, there have been many instances, historically and r ecently where insects are reported to survive otherwise lethal tempera tures by evaporating water, The site of evaporation may be internal, a s a consequence of increased ventilation, or on the body surface where water is exuded from several different sites in different species, So me species must rely on their body water stores while others can obtai n water abundantly from plants, There is a lower limit of body size at which evaporative water loss becomes ineffective, This limit is lower than may have been previously thought. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Sc ience Ltd