Water Loss—Respiratory

Abstract

If necessary it is possible to reduce water loss through the cuticle of an arthropod to very low levels. However, respiratory membranes, through which oxygen is absorbed from the gaseous phase, are moist, probably because the rate of diffusion of oxygen through water is some 34 times more rapid than through “chitin” (Dejours, 1975). Respiratory surfaces, essential for life as they are, therefore constitute a potential site for dehydration in land arthropods, and the form and function of the whole respiratory system can usually be seen as a compromise between the need for adequate oxygen and the need to conserve water. For reviews of these matters see Waggoner (1967), Bursell (1970), Berridge (1970), Edney (1974), and for insect respiration in general, see Miller (1974).