Abstract

Hydrogen isotopic analyses of beetle chitin demonstrate the potential for development of a palaeoclimatic tool that can be used to complement current palaeoentomological methods. Hydrogen and carbon, incorporated into the polysaccharide component of insect exoskeleton, are believed to be ultimately derived, via the food chain and metabolic processes, from diet carbohydrates constructed in plants from carbon dioxide and environmental water during photosynthesis. Isotopic data from this study and from carbon isotopic examinations of the same laboratory reared species support this assumption. Reproducible hydrogen isotope results, obtained from a simple nitration of chitin, demonstrate small interspecific and intraspecific variation in beetles of different habit. Chitin nitrate samples analysed from sites across North America vary in a similar manner to D/H ratios measured in cellulose nitrate when compared with environmental temperature. This may be particularly true when temperatures above freezing are considered.

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