Evaporation from the meal-worm ( Tenebrio : coleoptera ) and atmospheric humidity

Abstract

Meal-worms were kept at 23[degree] and 30[degree]C. and in atmospheres of various humidities. Even in dry air and at 30[degree]C. fasting larvae generally live 1 mo. That metabolism is low is shown by weighing the dally production of CO2 from fasting larvae kept in dry air. Loss of wt. of larvae is very nearly the same as loss of water. It is not possible to produce a standard meal-worm with a constant proportion of water in it. The loss of water from a fasting meal-worm is complex. For humidities below 90% the loss is nearly identical in larvae kept at 23[degree] and 30[degree] C. at the same saturation deficiency. But neither saturation deficiency nor any other measure of atmospheric humidity explains the loss at several humidities and any one temp. It seems that there is a definite limit to the amount of water which a larva can lose in a day; also that in nearly saturated air the larva produces more water of metabolism than it can get rid of. The larva can maintain the proportion of water in its body nearly constant, during a month''s fast, at humid-ities of 0-60%. It seems to be able to do this by consuming some stored substance and holding the water produced in metabolism.