The history of cold hardiness research in terrestrial arthropods

R.A.F. Reaumur in 1736 was the first entomologist to observe that some inse cts can tolerate freezing, while others cannot. The first reviews on insect cold hardiness were published by P. Bachmetjew who also discovered superco oling in insects. Authors like W. Robinson realised that piercing the cutic le changed the supercooling capacity and N.M. Payne pointed out that there are great seasonal variations in insect cold hardiness. In the early litera ture, references were frequently made to plant cold hardiness, in which the ories on tolerance to freezing were more elaborated. A modern approach to t he studies of insect cold hardiness was initiated by R.W. Salt. The number of reports increased enormously in the 1960's and 1970's. During the last 2 0 to 30 years new insight has appeared from studies on ice nucleators, anti freeze proteins, ice-nucleating bacteria, desiccation and biochemistry of c ryoprotectants.