.... Competing interests The authors declare no competing financial interests. 8 6 2014 7 11 2014 © 2014. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd 2014 Flow-through respirometry Respiratory water loss Cuticular permeability CO 2 emission rate Desiccation resistance...

..., cuticular abrasion, cuticular transpiration, respiratory water loss and metabolic rate for queens of the ant Messor pergandei at three stages: unmated alate queens, newly mated dealate queens (undug foundresses) and mated queens excavated from their incipient nest (dug foundresses); in addition we examined...

... by investigating metabolic rate, respiratory water loss and critical oxygen partial pressure ( P c ) in the onychophoran Peripatopsis capensis , a member of a group basal to the arthropods, and by synthesizing the available data on the Onychophora. The rate of carbon dioxide release ( V̇ CO 2) at 20°C in P...

... and the tracheal system. Although the DGC is considered an adaptation to reduce respiratory water loss (RWL) – the `hygric hypothesis' – it is absent from many taxa, including xeric ones. The`chthonic hypothesis' states that the DGC originated as an adaptation to gas exchange in hypoxic and hypercapnic, i.e...

... 2 and increase the gradient for outward diffusion of CO 2 . CO 2 would be released rapidly when the spiracles opened, and respiratory water loss would be reduced. The chthonic hypothesis therefore predicts that DGC minimizes the ratio of respiratory water loss to CO 2 release relative to other modes...

... and 30°C, while tidal volume V T ( V T =4.7±1.0 ml, mean ± s.d . at standard temperature and pressure dry) and breathing frequency f R ( f R =0.46±0.06 breaths s –1 ) were independent of T a . Respiratory water loss, RWL, was constant over the range of T a (RWL=1.2±0.4 mg g –1 h –1 ) used. In flying...