K. Slama, REGULATION OF RESPIRATORY ACIDEMIA BY THE AUTONOMIC NERVOUS-SYSTEM (COELOPULSE) IN INSECTS AND TICKS, Physiological zoology, 67(1), 1994, pp. 163-174
The respiratory patterns exhibited by diapausing adults of Chrysopa ca
rnea (Insecta, Neuroptera) and diapausing adults of Ixodes ricinus (Ac
ari, Parasitiformes) have been recorded by means of the scanning micro
respirographic method. Both these terrestrial arthropods released the
respiratory CO2 in the form of discontinuous pulses with a periodicity
of several minutes. In Chrysopa, the periodicity, was 2.1 min, each c
ycle lasted 9.5 s, and the amount of CO2 produced in one cycle average
d 42.26 nL. In Ixodes, the periodicity was 1.3 min, the CO2 pulses las
ted only 7 s, and the amount of CO2 produced in one cycle averaged 26.
13 nL. The described cycles in CO2 production, which are called the Pr
ague cycles, are regulated by the autonomic nervous system (the coelop
ulse) with the centers located in the thoracic ganglia. Some neurohorm
onal centers that could be associated with functions of the coelopulse
system are also outlined. The possibility that these structures (peri
sympathetic neurohemal organs, H-organ) are involved in regulation of
the respiratory acidemia is discussed.