Abstract
Ectotherms increase in size dramatically during development, and this growth should have substantial effects on their body temperature and ability to thermoregulate. To better understand how this change in size affects temperature, we examined the direct effects of body size on body temperature in Battus philenor caterpillars, and also how body size affects both the expression and effectiveness of thermal refuge-seeking, a thermoregulatory behavior. Field studies of both live caterpillars and physical operative temperature models indicated that caterpillar body temperature increases with body size. The operative temperature models also showed that thermal refuges have a greater cooling effect for larger caterpillars, while a laboratory study found that larger caterpillars seek refuges at a lower temperature. Although the details may vary, similar connections between developmental growth, temperature, and thermoregulation should be common among ectotherms and greatly affect both their development and thermal ecology.
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Acknowledgments
First, we would like to thank Karen Gonzalez and Angelina Uribe for assistance conducting the experiments and Dr Joel Kingsolver for advice in designing the caterpillar models. We would also like to thank Danfeng Wang, Dr Carla Essenberg, Dr Joel Kingsolver and three anonymous reviewers for comments on the manuscript. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under grant no. DGE-1143953. Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
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This research complies with the current laws of the United States of America. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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Communicated by Thomas S. Hoffmeister.
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Nielsen, M.E., Papaj, D.R. Effects of developmental change in body size on ectotherm body temperature and behavioral thermoregulation: caterpillars in a heat-stressed environment. Oecologia 177, 171–179 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-014-3123-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-014-3123-3