House Crickets

The Affect of the Environment on the Carbon Dioxide Production of Certain Cricket Species

The average amount of carbon dioxide produced per minute was compared between two different species of crickets, the field cricket and the house cricket. It can be seen from the results that the field cricket produces more carbon dioxide per minute than the house cricket. Since the two different species differ in natural habitat, the difference in temperature can be said to have an affect on the amount of carbon dioxide they are able to produce per minute. In addition, the metabolic rates of the crickets and their exposure to chemicals such as certain insecticides will ultimately have an impact on
which species of cricket can generate more micro-liters of carbon dioxide per minute.
The average number of micro-liters per minute of carbon dioxide that were produced was found to be greater for the field cricket species.
This may have been caused by the different environments that the two species of crickets have been exposed to. While the field cricket is mostly found in outdoor areas such as fields and meadows, the house cricket tends to live indoors or close to buildings where they have access to heat and food. This difference in habitat results in the field cricket rearing it’s eggs in a colder temperature, as opposed to the more stable room temperature where the house cricket would be most likely to produce it’s young. It has been found that when cold-blooded organisms such as crickets rear their young in a colder environment, they ultimately develop larger bodies than organisms reared at warmer temperatures. This theory is known as the “temperature size rule” (Atkinson, 1994). If field crickets are born in a lower temperature than house crickets, then according to this theory they will grow to a larger size. This may be the reason for the higher carbon dioxide production since the cricket species with the larger overall body will have more surface area to produce carbon dioxide with. Therefore, since field crickets are born in an environment with a lower average temperature than house crickets, they will ultimately grow to a slightly larger size allowing them to produce more micro-liters of carbon dioxide per
minute.
Another factor that may account for the field cricket’s higher rate of carbon dioxide production is the mating calls that the species uses in order to attract females to mate with. While the males of both species use these calls to attract a mate, the intensity of the field cricket’s mating call is found to higher than the one used by the house cricket. Wyatt (1981) found that the average calling time for field crickets is 3.5 hours per night. Since this mating ritual requires significant amounts of energy over extended periods of time, the average metabolic rate for the field cricket will be higher than that of the house cricket. It has been found that a higher metabolic rate also means that the organism, in this case varying species of cricket, will ultimately have a higher production of carbon dioxide per minute (Okada et al. 2011). Therefore, since field crickets experience longer periods of calling time they will ultimately have a higher overall metabolic rate, leading to a higher production of carbon dioxide in comparison to the average house cricket.
Lastly, an additional reason for the results found during this experiment could be due to the varying immune systems developed by the different species. While the field cricket is commonly found in fields and often around crops, it has a higher chance of being exposed to certain pesticides that could be potentially damaging to their health. This would require them to develop an immune system that would have the ability to detoxify these harmful chemicals that the average house cricket would not require. The process of detoxifying has been known to increase the metabolic rates in the crickets (Dingha et al. 2009), which in turn causes a higher quantity of carbon dioxide to be produced per minute. These detoxification methods would require the presence of an insecticide, therefore the field cricket would show an increase in metabolic rates and ultimately carbon dioxide production, due to their increased exposure to such chemicals. The rate of carbon dioxide production was found to be higher in field crickets than in house crickets. This could be due to the climates they live in, the mating calls they produce, and the chemicals that they are exposed to in the environment. While there is research supporting these ideas on how the field cricket produces more carbon dioxide, further investigation could uncover how these two species differ in carbon dioxide production from an evolutionary standpoint. This could show how the differences in environment over time could have changed the development of the two species. By evaluating these other factors, a deeper understanding of the differences in the cricket’s carbon dioxide production could be reached.

Literature Cited:

Okada, K., Pitchers, W. R., Sharma, M. D., Hunt, J., and D. J. Hosken. 2011. Longevity, calling effort, and metabolic rate in two populations of cricket. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

Rowell, G. A., and W. H. Cade. 1992. Simulation of alternative male reproductive behavior: calling and satellite behavior in field crickets. Ecological Modelling
65: 265-280

Atkinson, D. 1994. Temperature and organism size: a biological law for ectotherms? Advances in Ecological Research 25:1–58

Dingha, B. N., A. G. Appel, J. T. Vogt. 2009. Effects of Temperature on the Metabolic Rates of Insecticide Resistant and Susceptible German Cockroaches, Blattella germanica (L.) (Dictyoptera: Blattellidae) 1936-6019