The Thermal Warriors: Strategies of Insect Survival
We humans are warm-blooded and thus rarely face a temperature crisis, unless we get stranded in a snow storm or suffer some other such misfortune. For insects, however, temperature control is a ceaseless and crucial matter because such small creatures gain and lose heat far more rapidly than we large ones do. The smallest insects are adapted to exist at the ambient temperature of their specialized habitat, whether it be desert heat or glacial cold. But larger insects, particularly those that fly, heat and cool themselves by a variety of means, including basking, shelter construction, shivering, sweating, and blood-circulation control and so are able to function over a wider temperature range than small insects do. Heinrich (biology, Univ. of Vermont) presents a fascinating review of the strange world of insect thermoregulation, describing beetles that walk on long legs to escape the heat of the desert sand and larvae that cool themselves by spreading rectal fluid on their bodies. Gifted with the rare ability to communicate complex information in simple, clear language, he summarizes the main points covered in his larger, more technical work, The Hot-Blooded Insects (LJ 4/15/93), and includes recent developments on the subject. This book will appeal to both informed lay readers and scholars and is appropriate for all larger science collections.?Annette Aiello, Smithsonian Tropical Research Inst., PanamaCopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.