The view formerly advocated by Faivre, that the metathoracic ganglia play the part of special respiratory centres, must be entirely abandoned. All carefully performed experiments on the nervous system of Arthropoda have shown that each ganglion of the ventral chain is a motor centre, and in Insects a respiratory centre, for the somite to which it belongs. This is what Barlow calls the “self-sufficiency” of the ganglia.
The writer has made similar observations upon the respiration of Spiders and Scorpions;[156] but to his great surprise he has been unable either by direct observation, or by the graphic method, or by projection, to discover the slightest respiratory movement of the exterior of the body. This can only be explained by supposing that inspiration and expiration in Pulmonate Arachnida are intra-pulmonary, and affect only the proper respiratory organs. The fact is less surprising because of the wide zoological separation between Arachnida and Insects.
Respiratory Activity of Insects.
The respiratory activity of Insects varies greatly. Warmth, feeding, and movement are found to increase the frequency of their respirations, and also the quantity of carbonic acid exhaled. In Liebe’s[157] experiments a Carabus produced ·24 mgr. of carbonic acid per hour in September, but only ·09 mgr. per hour in December. A rise of temperature raised the product temporarily to twice its previous amount; but when the same insect was kept under experiment for several days without food, the amount fell in spite of its increased warmth. Treviranus[158] gives the carbonic acid exhaled by a Humble-bee as varying from 22 to 174, according as the temperature varied from 56° to 74° F.
Larvæ often breathe little, especially such as lie buried in wood, earth, or the bodies of other animals. The respiration of pupæ is also sluggish, and not a few are buried beneath the ground or shrouded in a dense cocoon or pupa-case. Muscular activity originates the chief demand for oxygen, and accordingly Insects of powerful flight are most energetic in respiration.
A rise of temperature proportionate to respiratory activity has been observed in many insects. Newport[159] tells us how the female Humble-bee places herself on the cells of pupæ ready to emerge, and accelerates her inspirations to 120 or 130 per minute. During these observations he found in some instances that the temperature of a single Bee was more than 20° above that of the outer air.
Some Insects can remain long without breathing. They survive for many hours when placed in an exhausted receiver, or in certain irrespirable gases. Cockroaches in carbonic acid speedily become insensible, but after twelve hours’ exposure to the pure gas they revive, and appear none the worse. H. Müller[160] says that an Insect, placed in a small, confined space, absorbs all the oxygen. In Sir Humphry Davy’s “Consolations in Travel”[161] is a description of the Lago dei Tartari, near Tivoli, a small lake whose waters are warm and saturated with carbonic acid. Insects abound on its floating islands; though water birds, attracted by the abundance of food, are obliged to confine themselves to the banks, as the carbonic acid disengaged from the surface would be fatal to them, if they ventured to swim upon it when tranquil.
Origin of Tracheal Respiration.
Kowalewsky, Bütschli, and Hatschek have described the first stages of development of the tracheal system. Lateral pouches form in the integument; these send out anterior and posterior extensions, which anastomose and form the longitudinal trunks. The tracheal ramifications are not formed by a process of direct invagination, but by the separation of chitinogenous cells, which cohere into strings, and then form irregular tubules. The cells secrete a chitinous lining, and afterwards lose their distinct contours, fusing to a continuous tissue, in which the individual cells are indicated only by their nuclei, though by appropriate re-agents the cell boundaries can be defined.