Lack of discontinuous gas exchange in a tracheate arthropod, Leiobunum townsendi (Arachnida, Opiliones)

Abstract

Abstract The discontinuous gas exchange cycle, characterized by stringent spiracular control and periods of near‐zero external CO2 emission separated by ‘bursts’ of CO2 emission, has evolved independently in several taxa of tracheate arthropods. These include the hexapoda, diplopoda, and several arachnid taxa; ticks, pseudoscorpions and solphugids. This paper presents the first data on gas exchange kinetics in a harvestman (Arachnida; Opiliones). The experimental animal, Leiobunum townsendi Weed, from an arid area of the south‐western United States, displayed a metabolic rate similar to those of other arthropods at 25 °C (129 ± 22 µW). Their CO2 emission kinetics showed, when the animals were motionless, only minor variations about a mean value of 0.0217 ± 0.0037 mL/h (n = 6, mean body mass 86 mg). Expressed on an intra‐recording basis, the coefficient of variation of CO2 emission (= SD/MEAN), which is an index of short‐term gas emission fluctuations and thus of spiracular control, had a mean value of only 0.082. In contrast, the coefficient of variation of animals employing a discontinuous gas exchange cycle is > 1.5. Gas exchange in opilionids, unlike the case with most other tracheate arthropods, may therefore be dominated by simple diffusion without a prominent role for wide modulations of spiracular conductance. Contributory to this conservative spiracular control strategy may be the weak degree of tracheation in opilionids, combined with circulating haemocyanin, which acts as both a transport medium and a buffering reservoir for respiratory gas exchange.