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Visible and near-infrared radiation may be transmitted or absorbed differently by beetle elytra according to habitat preference
BACKGROUND: The exoskeleton of an insect could be an important factor in the success of its evolutionary process. This reaches its maximum expression in beetles, which constitute the most diversified animal taxon. The involvement in the management of environmental radiation could be one of the most...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
PeerJ Inc.
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6882417/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31788360 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.8104 |
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author | Cuesta, Eva Lobo, Jorge M. |
author_facet | Cuesta, Eva Lobo, Jorge M. |
author_sort | Cuesta, Eva |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: The exoskeleton of an insect could be an important factor in the success of its evolutionary process. This reaches its maximum expression in beetles, which constitute the most diversified animal taxon. The involvement in the management of environmental radiation could be one of the most important functions of the exoskeleton due to the passive contributions to the thermoregulation of body temperature. We study whether the elytra of two sympatric and closely related beetle species respond differentially to the radiation of distinct wavelengths in agreement with their ecological preferences. METHODS: Onthophagus coenobita (Herbst) and O. medius (Kugelaan) occupy different habitats and environmental conditions (shaded vs. unshaded from solar radiation). The potential adaptive variations to thermoregulation under these different ecological conditions were studied using the responses of their exoskeletons to radiation of different wavelengths (ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared). For these two species, the amounts of the three wavelengths that were reflected, transmitted or absorbed by the exoskeleton were measured using of a spectrophotometer. In addition, the darkness and thickness of the elytra were examined to determine whether these two features influence the management of radiation by the exoskeleton. RESULTS: Both species differ in the management of visible and near-infrared radiation. In agreement with habitat preferences, the species inhabiting shaded conditions would allow infrared and visible radiation to penetrate the elytra more easily to heat internal body parts, while the elytra of the heliophilous species would have increased absorbance of these same types of radiation. An increase in body size (and therefore in elytron thickness) and the quantity of dark spots may serve as barriers against exogenous heat gain. However, the maintenance of between-species differences independent of the effects of these two morphological features led us to suspect that an unconsidered elytron characteristic may also be affecting these differences. DISCUSSION: The results of the involvement of the exoskeleton thickness and spots in the thermoregulation of insects opens new research lines to obtain a better understanding of the function of the exoskeleton as a passive thermoregulation mechanism in Coleoptera. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6882417 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-68824172019-11-29 Visible and near-infrared radiation may be transmitted or absorbed differently by beetle elytra according to habitat preference Cuesta, Eva Lobo, Jorge M. PeerJ Biophysics BACKGROUND: The exoskeleton of an insect could be an important factor in the success of its evolutionary process. This reaches its maximum expression in beetles, which constitute the most diversified animal taxon. The involvement in the management of environmental radiation could be one of the most important functions of the exoskeleton due to the passive contributions to the thermoregulation of body temperature. We study whether the elytra of two sympatric and closely related beetle species respond differentially to the radiation of distinct wavelengths in agreement with their ecological preferences. METHODS: Onthophagus coenobita (Herbst) and O. medius (Kugelaan) occupy different habitats and environmental conditions (shaded vs. unshaded from solar radiation). The potential adaptive variations to thermoregulation under these different ecological conditions were studied using the responses of their exoskeletons to radiation of different wavelengths (ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared). For these two species, the amounts of the three wavelengths that were reflected, transmitted or absorbed by the exoskeleton were measured using of a spectrophotometer. In addition, the darkness and thickness of the elytra were examined to determine whether these two features influence the management of radiation by the exoskeleton. RESULTS: Both species differ in the management of visible and near-infrared radiation. In agreement with habitat preferences, the species inhabiting shaded conditions would allow infrared and visible radiation to penetrate the elytra more easily to heat internal body parts, while the elytra of the heliophilous species would have increased absorbance of these same types of radiation. An increase in body size (and therefore in elytron thickness) and the quantity of dark spots may serve as barriers against exogenous heat gain. However, the maintenance of between-species differences independent of the effects of these two morphological features led us to suspect that an unconsidered elytron characteristic may also be affecting these differences. DISCUSSION: The results of the involvement of the exoskeleton thickness and spots in the thermoregulation of insects opens new research lines to obtain a better understanding of the function of the exoskeleton as a passive thermoregulation mechanism in Coleoptera. PeerJ Inc. 2019-11-25 /pmc/articles/PMC6882417/ /pubmed/31788360 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.8104 Text en © 2019 Cuesta and Lobo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited. |
spellingShingle | Biophysics Cuesta, Eva Lobo, Jorge M. Visible and near-infrared radiation may be transmitted or absorbed differently by beetle elytra according to habitat preference |
title | Visible and near-infrared radiation may be transmitted or absorbed differently by beetle elytra according to habitat preference |
title_full | Visible and near-infrared radiation may be transmitted or absorbed differently by beetle elytra according to habitat preference |
title_fullStr | Visible and near-infrared radiation may be transmitted or absorbed differently by beetle elytra according to habitat preference |
title_full_unstemmed | Visible and near-infrared radiation may be transmitted or absorbed differently by beetle elytra according to habitat preference |
title_short | Visible and near-infrared radiation may be transmitted or absorbed differently by beetle elytra according to habitat preference |
title_sort | visible and near-infrared radiation may be transmitted or absorbed differently by beetle elytra according to habitat preference |
topic | Biophysics |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6882417/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31788360 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.8104 |
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