Does metabolic rate at rest and during flight scale with body mass in insects?
by Dr JE Niven and Dr JPW Scharlemann The metabolic rate of an animal has major implications for its physiology and ecology. Although metabolic rate correlates with body mass, the exact scaling relationship for animals has been debated for over 100 years. Using measurements from 76 years of studies on insects, we show that scaling of resting metabolic rate with body mass is close to that predicted from changes in surface area to volume ratio. Surprisingly, during flight small and large insects appeared to have different metabolic rates, suggesting small insects may be saving energy compared to their larger counterparts. These relationships question current ideas of metabolic scaling in animals and may provide insights into metabolic scaling in other groups of animals. Contact: Dr JE Niven, Physiological Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EG Extreme spatial variability in marine picoplankton and its consequences for interpreting Eulerian time-series by
