The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-01-30
1 PRESIDE SCIENCE
KEyIVING DROWNED INSECTS

In an earlier article reference was
 made to question asked by a reader of the Evening World (who does not
 wish his name used) as to whether or
 not . cockroach can be drowned. He suggested: Take for your experiment . roach-hold it under water for eight
 or ten minutes. Would it be drowned ?"
 To be able to answer this question,
 which struck me as highly interesting,
 have conducted quite a series of ex
 periments, and the results are positive
 ly astounding.
 Air-breathing insects do not inhale air through their mouths, but through
 a system of tracheae. In both cases,
 however, the breathing process is the
 same--the taking. of oxygen out of the
 air for use in keeping the fires of life
 burning in the countless cells of the
 body. If the supply of oxygen (which
 serves the same purposes of fueD be
 shut off, suffocation or drowning re-
 suits. This statement applies to all air
 breathing animals, insects. as well as mammals. But, due to the fact that the air passages of insects open at diff
 ferent places on the exterior of their
 bodies, they can live longer under water
 water imprisons limited amount of air in the tubes (tracheae), and the submerged insect can live upon the oxy-
 gen contained in the imprisoned air un-
 til it becomes exhausted. Eight or ten
 minutes under water will not, there
 fore, drown an insect. A fly will
 visibly crawl about under water for
 about ninety minutes, then collapse.
 My experiments had to do largely
 with beetles. 1 placed beetles in
 strainer, submerged the strainer in
 water for two hours, took them out,
 covered some with table salt and left
 the others exposed to dry air. Within
 five minutes the -saltscOyered insects
 '.came to-" As the others did not re-
 cover, I assumed they were dead, but
 find I was mistaken. For gfadually increased the time of the submersion up to 12 hours, discovering that eSen then salt-c0vered beetles recover within less than an hour, whereas some of the un- salted beetles likewise recover, though it takes several hours for them to manifest the slightest signs of life. l finally extended the period of i'm mersion to 36 hours, and found that 15 beetles, covered with salt, all recovered in about two hours. Of 15 other beetles, which were not covered with salt, only five recovered, and it took them about four hours to stir. Toward the Close of
 
 ticed that number of the beetles no the strainer; they sank to the bottom. About fifty had been submerged at the same time, and all remained i'm nei.sed S6 houEs, during which time 12 sank to the bottom. These F showed the conceivable signs of life. They ap- psared to have shrunken to half their original size and were several shades darker than those that floated. That they had shrunken in size was probably the reason they sank, for An shrunken form they were heavier than the volume of water displaced. These once yellowish, but now blaekish beetles, would have been pronounced dead by any coroner's jury in the land So dead they appeared that it seemed almost foolish to try to revive them. I separated them into two lots, however, covered si1 E aRlt and left six ex- sAi 10 the ear; then, placing glasses ypTer 10th iots,, did not look at them Sll mo: n'sg, when I found every one
 ot 'tils salt-coyered six crawling around under he giass. Not one of the other ak shtred any signs of life.
 Wha these experiments mean is it- erelly tsyond me. Surely 36 hours un- der waer is long enough to drown any Air-brs'thing animal, and beetles are in DO sense aquatic. They lay their eggs Q, leaves and drink only honey dew screted by aphides and mealy- bugs. Their larvae devour scale insects and drive moisture from them, but during no stAge of the beetles exist enee 6es it drink water. It's a land aninnel an air-breather purely and simply. Did these drowned beetles die Sv,A frf lot ton wi be discussed in the next. ar tirln